Wereld
by Ceellia-19
Summary: Lok is an ordinary teen, except that he is thrown out of his kingdom, after accidentally breaking the magic- law. He decides to go to Caput, not knowing that the faith of Wereld would soon be in his hands... DxZ LxS COMPLETE!
1. Prologue

**Prologue**  
**  
Once upon a time, on a planet far far away called Wereld, there was a sixteen year old teen called Lok Lambert…**

Lok sighted, as he walked down the sandy path through Springstone Woods.  
He was alone, scared and to make it even worse: very hungry.  
_Damn why this had to happen to me? I wish I was at home, with mom and Cathy…  
_But unfortunately that was impossible. The soldiers of King Earl had thrown him out of the kingdom, after he (accidentally) violated the magic- law.  
It all had happened exactly six hours ago. Just six hours ago his life had changed dramatically.

XxXxXxXxXxXx

The day had started normal though. He was with his sister, working in Mom's bakery. After a few hours he decided to take a break. He sat down on a little bench in the sun, and fantasized about being one of king Earl's soldiers of the Oval table (after all, that's the dream of every boy in the kingdom).  
King Earl was a honorable, brave man who's great- great- great- great grandfather had raised this kingdom, as a safe haven for normal, non- magical people, in a dangerous world of monsters and magic. Therefore using magic was strictly forbidden between the great walls that protected the kingdom from intruders and monsters.

Suddenly Lok heard a women screaming: "Help! My bag is stolen!" And a wild looking man, who was holding a bag, ran past him.  
The hero in Lok awakened, and he started to chase the man.

"You! Stop!" He had yelled at him, while chasing him through the narrow, bumpy streets of the city.

But soon Lok started to feel tired, and he was getting more and more trouble keeping up with the man. Luckily a group of soldiers blocked him on a bridge. With Lok behind him, and the soldiers in front of him, the man was trapped. He looked around with panic in his eyes, searching for a way to escape.  
Suddenly the man grabbed Lok and put a knife against his throat.  
"Let me through! Or I'll kill this kid!" He yelled desperately.

"Easy man, nobody wants that to happen." One of the soldiers said.

But another soldier made a mistake, by stepping forward towards the man. He panicked, and raised his hand to stab Lok.

"No!" Lok screamed.  
A blue flash.  
The man flew through the air, into the arms of the surprised soldiers.

"What- what just happened?" Lok said stunned.

"I'll tell you what happened, you've violated the magic- law! You're banned!" Another soldier yelled.

"No! That's not possible… I-I didn't knew.. .I posses no magic! This is a mistaken.. I'm just a normal kid, It was self- defense!" Lok said with a voice shrill of panic.

XxXxXxXxXxXx

His mother crying.  
Cathy crying.  
Angry soldiers.  
A happy women reunited with her bag.  
More crying.

He tried to ban these painful memories from his mind, but failed.

"Mum, I'm so sorry.." He whispered.  
_She's probably dying of worries for me. She'd always forbidden me and Cathy to leave the kingdom._

"The world is to dangerous." She'd said. "Full of werewolves and vampires, dragons and giant- spiders, and of course seekers and other sinister magical people."

He knew exactly why she was so scared of the outside world, it was because his father had disappeared there. 13 years ago he went on a journey to the capital of Wereld, Caput, but never returned. He had left the three of them alone with the bakery, unknowing whether he was still alive or not.

Suddenly Lok got an idea.  
_I can go look for my father now!_

He smiled, for the first time in six hours. He had a destination now; Caput.

-  
**Okay this story has very little to do with Huntik, I'm just using the characters XD**

**It's also not some weird remake of season one, it's a whole new story… but I don't know if it's any good…  
So what do you think? Shall I continue or not? Let me know… ^^  
**


	2. Chapter 1: Beer bottles and ice chess

**Chapter 1: Beer bottles and ice- chess**

**Lok**

_**Somewhere in Springstone Woods**_****

Lok was exhausted. He had walked non-stop for 7,5 hours now, and it was getting dark. He started to feel dehydrated, and he had never been so hungry in all of his life.  
He looked in his pocket, and found five bronze coins, a safety pin, a little stone and a bid of sand. None of that was eatable.  
He sighted deeply when he realized that Caput probably was at least another 12 hours walking. But he could be wrong, geography wasn't his strongest point.

Grumpy he sat down under a big tree.  
He thought longing about the little sweet breads and cakes of Mom's bakery…..  
Suddenly a creature sat down next to him.  
"WHAAAH." Lok yelled startled.  
He scribbled backwards and looked at the creature. A wave of relieve came over him when he realized this was just a harmless little animal.  
"Oooh, you're just an albino bat- monkey."  
He smiled.  
"Hi there little guy, you made me scared."

"Sorry." It said with a scraping voice.

"That's okay ."  
_Wait a second…  
_"AAAH what the hell! You can talk?"

The little white animal sniggered.  
"Yes I can talk, I'm not a normal bat- monkey."

"Great, can it be any more crazy?" He muttered.

"Sure it can."

"That was a rhetorical question….."

Lok sighted. There was a moment of silence.  
"So… what's your name? Or don't speaking bat- monkey have a name?"

"Call me Cherit, and you're Lok Lambert."

Lok was surprised.  
"How do you know that?"

"I can't tell you that… but I know you're a seeker, banned from King Earl's kingdom, and now lost."

"Ok first of all: I'm not a seeker, and second: I'm not lost! I'm going to Caput, to search for my father."

Cherit sniggered again.  
"You ARE a seeker, you used magic remember? And if you want to go to Caput you're going the wrong way buddy."

_I should have paid more attention at geography class…  
_"Oh damn...Cherit can you help me find the right way?"

"Sure, but first we need to find a place to spend the night, and have some dinner. You look terrible."

Lok smiled.  
"No doubt."

"Let's go then, I know a little Inn not far from here." Cherit said enthusiastically.

**30 minutes later**

In the middle of the woods stood an old, worn out Inn.  
"It's that it..?" Lok said disappointed.

"Yes, don't worry it's not as bad as it looks."

They want inside. Lok had to bend over immediately, to avoid being hit by a bottle of beer. A wave of beer and glass ran over Lok's head.  
"Just great!"  
Lok had to yell to Cherit to overcome the noise of the Inn.

He walked carefully towards the bar, trying hard to not to fall over drunken people and empty bottles.  
The woman behind the bar smiled at him. She was a bit chubby, with a friendly round face, framed by beautiful black curls.  
"You look like you've came from far kid." She said  
"I'm Lila, and this is my Inn."

"Ehm.. Hi nice to meet you, can my friend Cherit and I get a room and some dinner?"

"Sure, stay here, I'll be right back."

Lok didn't felt very comfortable. He looked around. This place was full of weird, mostly drunk, people. And he was almost sure the pale guy on the left side of the bar was a vampire (after all he was drinking a big glass of red fluid that looked suspiciously much like blood).

"Lok have you seen that guy over there?" Cherit suddenly said enthusiastically.

Lok took another nervous glance at the vampire.  
"Yeah, he gives me the creeps."

"No, not that guy, thát guy over there. That's Dante Vale, one of the master seekers! It's a good guy, maybe he wants to teach you how to be a seeker!"

"Why would he do that? I have barely enough money to stay here…"

"He owes me something, come let's go greet him!"

They walked toward the guy (well, Lok walked, Cherit flew), who was wearing a long, brown, leather coat.  
Lok had expected to see an old man with a scarred face. But to his great surprise he saw a young, good- looking guy with red- brown hair.

"Dante Vale!" Cherit said cheerfully.

Dante looked up.  
"Hey cherit, long time no see."  
He noticed Lok.  
"You've brought me a present I see?"

"This is Lok Lambert, he's a seeker to, and thrown out of King Earls kingdom."

"Ugh, King Earls's a madman. Afraid of magic, and everything what's different."

"Lok is going to Caput, can you help him? And maybe teach him some things?"

"Hmm… well you're lucky kid, I have to go to Caput to. And since you're Cherits friend and obviously not going to survive without some help, I'll bring you there tomorrow."

"Wow.. thanks… I think."  
Lok didn't know whether to be happy or insulted.

**Zhalia******

_**Queen Zhalia's Ice palace, somewhere in the mountains of Snowland**_

Zhalia was sitting on her throne. She was feeling bored. Being a queen wasn't as much fun as you'd think.

Her royal servant Peter came in.  
"My queen, there's another man here to visit you."

She sighted. Another man. For seven years, ever since her sixteenth birthday, when her parents died and she'd became queen, hundreds of men had visited her, to propose. She'd rejected them all.

"Good morning my beautiful queen!" A long, muscular man with a mustache stepped into the hall.  
"You can stop searching, I'm the man of your dreams!"

"I wasn't searching at all…." She muttered inaudible.

"To win your hart I've brought you two presents: one as a proof for my being romantic, and one as a sign of my braveness!"

When she maintained in silence, he magically pulled out a bunch of pink roses.  
Zhalia stretched her arm out, and with one hand move she turned the roses in ice.  
"I hate the color pink."

He paled a bit, but quickly recovered himself.  
"That's okay I should have known that… "  
Now he showed a big, with blood stained bag, and pulled the severed head of a tigerbear. Blood dripped on the floor.

"You idiot, look what you're doing to my floor!"  
She sighted. This guy was even worse than the man who brought her a 10 meter high statue of herself, made of butter, this morning.  
"Guards, remove this guy."

Four guards came in. Three of them dragged the visitor away, but one of them stayed.  
"All of these guys aren't worthy of you my queen. They don't love you like I do." He said

Zhalia frowned.

"I can't hide it any more…. I love you Queen Zhalia, marry me." He fell on his knees and looked at her with a hopeful glance in his eyes.

Zhalia felt her bloodpressure increase. She had to bring in all of her self- control not to strangle the guard.

_**A few hours later**_**  
**  
" Ha! I'm definitely going to win from you…. Again!" Mr. Coquees said eaferly.  
Mr. Coquees was Zhalia's 80 year old cook, and good friend (actually her only friend, being queen was also a very lonely job). They were playing ice- chess in the kitchen.

"I wouldn't count on that, this time I'm going to kick your ass!" Zhalia said with a smile.

"I've heard you fired one of your guards?" Mr. Coquees asked a few moves later.

"Yeah, it's unbelievable, he wanted to marry me… Now even my own staff has gone mad. That's why I like you so much; you would never try to hit on me."

Mr. Coquees chuckled.  
"Not in a million years… But my dear, exactly why are you rejecting of all those men? Wasn't there anyone you liked? Not even a tiny bit? You know, there are rumors arising about you having a piece of ice instead of a heart."

She snorted.  
"I don't care about what other people thing… Those men...They don't know me, they don't love me. They love my appearance, and they love my millions pieces of gold… They're just pathetic annoying people trying to get a bit higher up in the world."  
Suddenly she laughed triumphant.  
"Checkmate!"

-

**I** **Hope you liked this second chap! ^^**

And no worries: Sophie (and other characters like scarlet and Rassinov) will come in the story soon!

Let me know what you thought of it… =)


	3. Chapter 2: The broken city

**Chapter 2: The broken city**

_**Springstone Woods**_

**Lok  
**_**  
**_Next morning Lok, Dante and Cherit continued their trip to Caput, after a nice breakfast of Lila. They took the path eastwards, and after three hours of walking, it was time for a break.

Lok plumped down on a soft piece of ground immediately.  
"Djeez I've never walked so much in all of my life."

"Well, you better get used to it. You're a seeker now, and you'll walk a lot more in your life." Dante said.

"Ah man…"

"Get up Lok, I'm going to learn you some spells." Dante said a few minutes later.

"What? Now? But my feet hurt and-"

"Lok, if you want to make it in this world, and find your father, you have to become a lot tougher."

"Heee, I ám tough!."  
Lok stood up.  
"I'm ready, but don't get mad if I mess this up."

But to everybody's great surprise, Lok turned out to be quite a talent. He used a successful Touchram after barely five attempts, and Boltflare after three.

"Great Lok, offensive spells seem to go very well. Now let's try something entirely different."  
"The spell I'm going to teach you is called Hyperstride, it's a very useful spell, that allows you to run away from trouble quickly, and jump very high."  
Dante's legs covered with a blue aura. He jumped six meters high, and landed smoothly.

"Wow! And you didn't even said the spell!" Lok yelled amazed.

"When you control a spell perfectly, you don't have to pronounce it anymore." Cherit said.

"Cool, I want to try that spell to!"  
"Hyperstride!"

Nothing happened.  
So he tried it again, and again, and again, but still he didn't succeeded .

"Ah man this spell is not suitable for me…" Lok said

"Don't give up Lok, you just have to be confident, and think…. airy, ignore gravity." Dante said.

"Okay, I can do this… Hyperstride!" He yelled, and with all of his power he jumped.  
He flew almost ten meters trough the sky, and landed in a tree.  
"Aaaaaaah..!" He screamed when he fell out of it, and crushed into the ground.  
"Man that hurts…" He said, while rubbing his painful back.

"I think that was enough for today." Dante said, while trying to swallow a laugh. Unfortunately he failed, and Lok felt the blood stream to his head.  
_Man this seeker thing is even harder than I thought…_

**Dante**

"We're almost there." Dante said, while they walked through the hills of Springstone valley.  
It had took them a lot longer than twelve hours to come this far, mostly because of the many breaks they had taken, to let Lok practice his magic. But it was worth it. He was now also capable of using Armorbrand and Ropetrick. But Hyperstride still caused him trouble, although he had improved a lot.

Finally Wereld's Capital came into view. But the closer they came, the more Dante got the feeling there was something very wrong. Parts of the city were on fire, and the whole west- part seemed to be affected by an earthquake or something.

Dante started running down the hill, with Lok and Cherit in his wake.  
When they entered the city, the damage was even bigger than they'd expected. An unnatural silence sounded in the empty streets. The few people they saw, were trying to extinguish little fires.

"Follow me." Dante said to a perplexed Lok.

After a few minutes they reached the building Dante was looking for, the town hall. To his great relief he saw his friends standing in front of it.  
"Gugenheim! Tersley!"

Lord Guggenheim, the city's Mayor, a big friendly- looking guy with blond hair, and his assistant, Jim Tersley, a smart looking guy with red hair and glasses, turned around.  
"Dante Vale, my good friend!" Lord Guggenheim said surprised.

"What on earth happened here?"

Guggenheim's face darkened.  
"It were General Wind and his black riders. They have done this."

"What? Were proceeding independently or in order of Lord Rassinov? Because this is a huge violation of the pact, as bad as a declaration of war."

"Don't say that word. I'm sure they proceeded independently."

_Did they?_  
Two hundred years ago there was a big war between the upper world, and the underworld, which was ruled by the Rassinov family. Because the upper world had always been divided, the underworld threatened to conquer whole of Wereld. But one day, all leaders, and all creatures, laid their hands, and stopped Lord Rassinov. They concluded a peace- pact, and raised the counsel of wise, a group of wise delegates of the six main population groups of Wereld. There had been peace ever since.

"I think I've heard of them… Why have they done this?" Lok asked.

"Nobody knows, but this is serious and the offenders must be punished. I suggest somebody goes to Nubes, the sky- palace of the counsel, and ask for advice." Tersley answered, while cleaning his with soot soiled glasses with his shirt.

"I'll go!" Dante said determined.

"And I want to go with you Dante! I've always wanted to see Nubes, this is a once in a lifetime- opportunity!"

Dante frowned. _Is this a good idea? The boy is only sixteen and an inexperienced seeker..  
_But Dante recognized something of himself in him. And the kid was right, this was a great opportunity, nobody was allowed to visit Nubes, unless you had a serious reason. And they had.  
"Okay Lok, you can come with me, and Cherit to of course."

""Yes!" Lok cheered.

Dante smiled. _I hope I'm not going to regret this…_

-  
**Yeah I know this was a short, and maybe slightly boring chapter. But I'll update the next one soon… ^^**


	4. Chapter 3: The Cervix

**Chapter 3: The Cervix**

_**Silvacivi: the city of elves, Arbory forest**_**  
****  
Sophie******

"Lady Sophia, lady Sophia!"  
A 10 cm high elf flied towards Sophie, and sat down on her shoulder. The little elf had short green hair, and a orange dress made of petals. Her glass- like wings sparkled in the sunlight, but her little face, with in proportional enormous pupilless eyes, looked worried.

"What's wrong Undecim?"

"There's another injured unicorn!"

"Again? Quick Undecim, bring me to it…"

Sophie followed Undecim until they reached a little open spot in the woods. There was the unicorn, lying in the grass, which was red from its blood.  
Sophie gasped, this time it was even worse. Someone had cut of the unicorn's wings.  
A wave of anger came over her. It was impossible a wolf, werewolf or other predator had done this, this was human- work.  
Next to the unicorn sat another elf, with long curly purple hair. She was crying.

"Dixie, have you seen who did this?" Sophie asked friendly.

"Y-yes it- it were two evil man wearing a black gear, and- and they also had black horses…They were laughing, they've done this just for- just for fun…"

Sophie sighted of frustration. _That awful black riders again, someone should stop them… oh if I ever see one of them I swear…!  
_Suddenly she realized the unicorn was still there, and in incredible pain. She walked towards him and laid her hand on his head.  
"Don't worry, I'll heal you." She whispered, while softly caressing its snow-white hair.

She held her hand above the bleeding wound, closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and started muttering a spell. Her hand started to glow up with a white aura, and slowly the wounds started to heal.

She opened her eyes and smiled, when she saw the unicorn standing up carefully.

"Well done Lady Sophia, as always." Undecim said relieved.

"Thanks, but unfortunately I can't turn back his wings… He'll never fly again." ****

_**Major Gugenheim's office, Caput**_****

Lok

"So how are we going to Nubes? Are we going to fly on unicorns?" Lok asked enthusiastically.  
**  
**Tersley chuckled. "You're not very smart aren't you? Unicorns can't fly that high. And besides, Nubes is hidden between clouds and impossible to find." ****

"Oh…" Lok said, a bit disappointed.

"Don't worry Lok, we'll go through the golden gate, that's a gateway that will teleport us to the sky- palace." Dante said.

"Wait... everybody can just walk through that gate?"

"No of course not, the gate- keeper has to open it first, and therefore we have to show him a official document that consents us to go."

"Wow what a bureaucratic hassle…"

"It's easy, cause luckily for you, I'm allowed to give you permission." Guggenheim said, while he walked towards his desk, opened a drawer, and pulled out a fancy document.  
He took a feather, dipped it in the ink, and started to write. After a few minutes he was done, and he handed the document to Dante.  
"This will do. Now, go to the hall of the gateway, it's not far from here. Good luck"

Dante nodded. "Thanks Guggenheim."

_**The hall of the gateway**_  
**  
**Lok, Dante and Cherit stepped into a giant marble hall with big windows of stained glass. The hall was almost empty, apart from the wooden visitor- benches on the left, and a big altar with the golden portal on it at the end of the hall.  
Within seconds an old man with a long beard, wearing a long white attire, approached him.  
"Welcome in the holy hall of the golden gateway. Can I help you?"

"Yes, we must visit the counsel for advice. And we have permission." Dante said. He took the document out the pocket of his coat, and gave it to the man.

He studied it with a frown.  
"Hmm well that seems to be all right…. Follow me."

They followed him towards the portal. The old man took off the little golden key that was hanging on a necklace round his neck, and opened the gate.  
"You can go now."

Lok looked at the gate. _This looks like an ordinary gate to me…  
_But he followed Dante, and stepped through it.

Suddenly there was a blinding golden flash, and they disappeared.  
When Lok opened his eyes again, he saw to his great surprise an enormous temple- like palace. It was white with lilac columns, and subtle golden decorations.  
Suddenly he realized that they were standing on clouds.

Dante saw him looking and smiled.  
"No worries, we won't fall through."

A blond women, wearing a long white attire, approached them.  
"Welcome, My name is Sade, the counsel knows of your advent, and are ready to welcome you. Follow me."

She lead them through the palace, until they reached a half- round chamber. It was almost entirely made glass, so the clear blue color of the sky was everywhere around them.  
Lok's mouth fell open, it was really overwhelming.  
In the middle of the room was a long white table, with six persons, who were also wearing long white attires, sitting behind it. One by one they introduced themselves.

The brown- haired man at the left started.  
"I'm Sir Metz, the delegate of the seekers."

"I'm Lady Invidia, the delegate of the underworld." The thin women with incredibly long black hair, who was sitting next to Metz, said.

"I'm Sir George, the delegate of the human." A big man with gray hair and a mustache said.

The pale blond man on Sir George's left was the next to speak.  
"I'm Sir Letum, the delegate of the undead like vampires and werewolves."

"I'm Lady Mare, delegate of the mermaids and other creatures of the sea." The women with a slightly grey skin, and purple hair said.  
**  
**"And I'm Astrum, delegate of the elves and other creatures of the woods." A little red- haired elf far right said, with a very high and almost inaudible voice.

Although they all were at least two hundred years old, they still looked the same as the day they formed the counsel.

Lok had never seen a mermaid or a elf before, and couldn't help but stare at them, until Dante, who kneeled down, looked at him with a warning glance.  
He realized it was polite to kneel and quickly did the same thing.

"Welcome, please introduce yourself, and tell us the reason of your visit." Metz said.

Dante stood up. "I'm Dante Vale, and this are Lok Lambert and Cherit, we're here because one of Lord Rassinov's Generals, Wind, has attacked Caput, and terrorizes the whole world with his black riders. I… believe that he's acting on behalf of Lord Rassinov, and I think that Rassinov's planning something. Something big."

Lady Invidia frowned. " That's a serious accusation, do you have any proof?"

"No… just my instinct. But that's always almost right."

She smiled a bit mockingly. But before she could react Metz spoke.  
"It is clear that General Wind must be punished. He must be arrested and then we'll judge him. I suggest every Kingdom sends some knights to catch him and his riders." He turned himself to Sade.  
"Sade inform all leaders of this."

She nodded and quickly left the room.

"But what if Dante's right? And this is something bigger?" Lady Mare asked.

"I agree with Lady Mare, I've got a bad feeling about this, there's no way Lord Rassinov is unaware of what his General does." Astrum said worried.

Sir George suddenly stood up. "I say, let those three travel to the underworld. But the expedition will be incredibly dangerous, so I say they must go together with King Earl's best soldiers!"

"No! No soldiers, we don't want to cause a war, they better ask some powerful allies to join them." Metz said.

Sir George snorted. "And who do you suggest?"

It was Astrum who answered. "They can ask the three other cervix!"

Now Lok was confused. He had been able to follow the discussion, but now he was floundering.  
"Ehm… who or what are the cervix?"

Dante answered. " The cervix are four people who possess great magic, based on the four powers of life; nature, ice, fire and darkness. Every generation has its own cervix, and Lord Rassinov is one of them."

Lok chuckled. "Let me guess, he's the one of darkness?"

"Precisely." Astrum said. "The other three are Lady Sophia, Queen Zhalia and Queen Scarlet."

"I think it's a wonderful idea to ask them. Who agrees with me?" Metz said.

All other wise (Sir George a bit reluctantly) raised their hands.

"Than it's decided. Dante, Lok and Cherit, you'll travel to Silvacivi, Snowland and the Siccitas- desert. Try to persuade the cervix to join you on your quest to the underworld. Find out what's going on there, and then come back to report us.

_**Arbory forest**_

Dante, Lok and Cherit were walking through the beautiful Arbory forest. Every tree and bush seemed to flourish, and little forest animals and flowers were everywhere.  
_Thank god I have no __hay fever__**…**_

"Dante I've got a question, you said all cervix are people, but now we're going to the city of elves?"

"But Lady Sophia is no elf. She just lives in Silvacivi, because she's an orphan and raised by the elves, but furthermore I know nothing about her, except she's about sixteen years old, and the cervix of nature."_****_

"You think she'll want to help us?"

"I hope, otherwise I don't think we're going to survive our little quest." Dante said with a smile.

_Oh god, what____have I started?  
_Suddenly he realized he'd totally forgotten about his father.  
_But I can't leave Dante now, he needs me.._

**Sophie**___****_

Sophie was sitting against a tree, reading a book. Reading was one of the things she loved to do the most. He favorite books were history books, about old legends and strange worlds and cultures far away. One day, she wanted to leave Silvacivi, and go on a world trip.

"Lady Sophia, there are visitors who want to meet you!" Undecim said.

"Ehm okay… bring them here."  
_What visitors? I've never had visitors before…  
_Sophie tried to remain calm, but from inside she was death nervous.

After a minute Undecim returned, followed by a long, strong looking man who was wearing a long brown coat and had red- brown hair, and a younger man, with sweet blue eyes and blond hair. He was wearing beige pants and a dark- green shirt.

**Lok**

"Welcome, I'm Lady Sophia, but call me Sophie… ehm… what brought you here?" A beautiful girl with a pale skin, long reddish blond hair and big green eyes said. She was wearing a short pink dress, with a big white flower on the right strap.  
Lok hart jumped a bit.

Dante explained her everything. When he was finished she looked at them doubtfully.  
"I don't know… I've actually always wanted to see something more of the world, and help other people, but it sounds a bit dangerous and I can't leave the elves and the animals alone, they need me…"

"Sophie, please come with us. Together we're stronger, I'll make sure nothing happens to you." Lok said tough.

Undecim mingled herself in the discussion to. "Lady Sophia, We'll be fine, you must go, Wereld needs you. And don't you want to take revenge on those awful black riders?"

Undecim seemed to have persuaded her.  
"You're right Undecim, but… I'm going to miss you so much!"

Undecim cave her a kiss.  
"I'm going to miss you to, but I've always known you'd leave someday, you don't belong here. Just be careful."

Sophie smiled.  
"But don't worry, I'll come back, but with some amazing travel- stories."

All the elves waved goodbye, when Sophie, Lok, Dante and Cherit left.

"So, where are we going to first?" Sophie asked.

"Our next destination is Snowland, to visit the cervix of ice, Queen Zhalia, and after that we'll go to Queen Scarlet." Dante answered.

Sophie snorted. "I think that's a waste of time. I don't think they'll want to help us. One sais that Queen Zhalia has a piece of ice instead of a hearth, and Queen scarlet is a dangerous witch."

"I've heard all those rumors to, but still we have to try it. We'll need all the help we can get."

-  
**Sorry for so much Lok- pov, next chap that will be different… cause then they'll meet Queen Zhalia… =D**


	5. Chapter 4: An icy surprise

**Chapter 4: An icy surprise**

_**Somewhere in Snowland**_

**Dante  
**  
Dante, Lok, Sophie and Cherit had been plowing through the snow for almost two days now. It was snowing non- stop, and together with a freezing north wind it was unbearably cold. Luckily they had bought long thick attires.

"I can't believe we're going through all this just visit that stupid mean ice- queen." Sophie muttered.

"Is she really that bad? Where do all those rumors come from?" Lok asked.

"Well, one sais that she's so beautiful, that every day men visit her palace, to propose and give the most ridiculous presents. But she rejects all of them, and let her guards throw them out harshly. No man can let her ice- hearth melt." Sophie answered.

Dante maintained in silence. He was actually pretty curious to meet this notorious ice- queen.

Finally, after two days of white wilderness, they saw a city on the horizon. It was a very big, and beautiful city. The wooden houses were all covered with a sugary layer of white snow, and the streets were decorated with little magical blue lights.  
They decided to go eat something in a restaurant first, before visiting the palace.

**Zhalia**

"Queen Zhalia!"

"Yes Peter, what's up?"

"There are three visitors, well actually four, who want to speak to you. 2 men, a girl and a…. talking white bad- monkey."

Zhalia frowned. "Are you kidding me?"

"No my queen, of course not. And there also a letter… It's from Lord Rassinov."  
He handed her an envelope.

Zhalia opened it and read the letter.  
"How dares he?" She yelled, and tore the letter to tiny pieces.

"What was it about?" Peter asked.

"Ugh nothing, he has invited me to come to his castle and have dinner with him."

"Forgive me my impertinence majesty, but why wouldn't you go? Lord Rassinov is a good party."

"No! He's a creep from the underworld!"

"But majesty there has been peace between the upper- and the underworld for two hundred years now, Lord Rassinov is a honorable man."

"Well if you like him so much, why don't you go have dinner with him. I hope you two will live happily ever after." Zhalia said sarcastic.  
"Now send in those visitors…"

_**A few minutes earlier**_

**Dante**

Dante had seen a lot of buildings in his life, but queen Zhalia's palace was one the most amazing. It was huge and made of ice and white stone. Although it was freezing there were many fountains.

"Wow this is unbelievable…" Sophie whispered.

They walked towards the two big guards in front of the gateway, who were wearing dark-blue fur- lined uniforms.

"Ehm good afternoon, we want to speak to the Queen. It's very important." Dante said.

"Follow me." One of the guards said.

"Waaah…..!"  
They barely had set foot into the alley or Lok slipped.  
"What the- These floors are made of ice?"

Sophie giggled. "Yeah what a surprise."

Dante helped him up. "You have to be more careful Lok, or you'll kill yourself before our quest has even really started."

The guard brought them to another alley. They stood still in front of a huge door, entirely made of ice.  
"Wait here, I'll let the queen's royal servant know you're here."

A few minutes later a nervous looking blond man, wearing glasses and a light- blue uniform, approached them.  
"The queen is ready to welcome you." He said, while opening the door for them.

They stepped inside a big, and very high hall. Queen Zhalia was sitting on her throne (which was also made of ice of course), with her legs crossed and her head leaning on her hand.  
Dante gasped, it was really true what they said. She was indeed very beautiful, but entirely different than he'd expected. Because he'd expected to see a blond woman with ice- blue eyes and a snow-white skin, but Zhalia's half- long hair was blue as the night- sky, her eyes gold- brown, and her perfect skin had the color of caramel. The tiara round her forehead was made of thin silver. She was wearing a long, tight strapless white dress, with a split on the left side. She was also wearing shiny light blue, high- heeled boots of thin leather, and matching long gloves of the same material.

She looked at them with a blank expression.  
"Well? What do you want?"

Everybody looked at him and Dante realized he had to answer.  
_Focus Dante…!  
_He started to explain her everything. When he was finished Zhalia's face was still expressionless, and he was afraid she would refuse. But to his great surprise she suddenly stood up and smiled.  
"That sounds like a great excuse to finally leave this boring castle!"

Peter the royal servant rushed forwards.  
"But- but my queen you can't leave to go on this… ridiculous quest, you have duties, and it's far too dangerous!"

"Stop complaining Peter, who's the queen, you or me? I can take care of myself, and the kingdom won't collapse if I leave for a few weeks. You can take care of everything here until I'm back."

"But-"

"See this as a business trip. That's also a part of the queen's duty isn't it?"

"Yeah but-"

"Very well than, that's settled. Peter, give our guests a room, we'll leave tomorrow."

Peter sighted. "Follow me…"  
And a bit confused they followed him.

_**The next morning**_

**Sophie**

Sophie walked through the alleys of the castle towards Lok's room.  
When she had woke up this morning it had took here a few seconds to realize were she was. It all felt so unreal. She hadn't expected at all that queen Zhalia would actually say yes, and join them. And she didn't knew whether to be happy with that or not.  
**  
**Sophie knocked on the icy door of Lok's room.

"Lok, are you ready? We're leaving!"

Lok came out of him room, with dark circles under his eyes.

Sophie smiled. "You look terrible Lok, have you slept badly?"

"Badly? I haven't slept at all! It was so freaking cold!"

"Oh Lok, you should have asked for extra blankets. With ten blankets it was okay."

Lok muttered something unintelligible.

_**Outside the palace**_

**Zhalia**_****_

Zhalia looked from a distance to the people she was about to spend the next weeks with. Suddenly she felt a bit… nervous. This was the first time she'd be out of Snowland for so long, and she wasn't really used to the company of other people. But these three seemed quite nice. Although she felt a bit of animosity at the girl, Sophie.  
Sophie was chatting to Lok, and the oldest guy, Dante (who she decided, was very good- looking), was leaning against a tree and staring at the horizon. She hadn't heard him say much and that deepened his aura of mystery.  
_**  
**_Zhalia took a deep breath, and walked towards them. She was holding four white horses by the reins.  
"These will bring us to the edge of the Siccitas- desert, Queen Scarlet's kingdom. But not further, the desert is to warm for them."

"Thanks majesty… I mean ice- queen…. Ehm… No I mean…" Lok said with an increasingly becoming redder head.

Zhalia sighted. "Just call me Zhalia that's fine."  
She mounted a horse.  
"Let's go."

Sophie looked at her with a strange glance.

Zhalia sighted again. "What is it now?"

"Shouldn't you wear something more… warm? It's freezing ." Sophie said.

"Of course not, in fact, the colder it is, the warmer I get it."

"Wow that just makes no sense at all." Lok said amazed.

"It's doesn't have to make sense. Now, grab a horse, we have a long way to go."

-

**Now the team's complete, hooray!  
Next chap they'll go visit queen Scarlet…. But does she wants to help them to? Or are the rumors true and is she a dangerous witch?**


	6. Chapter 5: Spiders and sand

**Chapter 5: Spiders and sand**

_**The Tenubrae forest  
**_  
**Zhalia**

Zhalia inhaled the moist forest- air, while listening to the two bickering teens who were riding in front of her.  
_**  
**_"Lok, just admit it, we're lost" Sophie yelled, while she nervously looked around. But because of the thick fog there was not much to see.

"No we're not!" Lok said, and he looked on the map. "Let's see we went left here… and right over there… No, now I'm holding the map upside down… we took that road I think…"

_That kid just couldn't be more useless…_  
"What idiot has given hím the map?" Zhalia said.

"He's doing his be-" Sophie stopped in the middle of her sentence, distracted by the sudden sound of breaking branches.  
"Lok where have you brought us to?" She whispered.

"I'm not sure but maybe I've lead us into the Tenubrae forest…" Lok said with an apologetic voice.

Everybody moaned.

"Great now we're lunch for the giant- spiders." Zhalia said.

"Not so negative Zhalia." Dante took the map. "If we keep following this road, we'll be out of the forest soon, and almost at the edge of queen Scarlet's kingdom. "

"IIIIIIhh!" Sophie screamed, when a gigantic spider suddenly appeared in front of them.

Zhalia smiled. "What were you saying Dante?" Her hand glowed up blue when she hit the spider with a beam of ice splinters.  
It ran away quickly, but four new spiders surrounded them.

Sophie raised her green- glowing hands and tree roots wrapped around two of the spiders.

"Touchram!" Dante hit one of them right between the eyes. It flew back a few meters but recovered, and shot shiny white spin silk at him. Dante gave a tug on the reins of his horse and evaded the attack, but the silk hit Lok.

"Waaah!" Lok screamed, when the spider pulled him of his horse, and started to retrieval his prey.

"Lok!" Sophie yelled. She wanted to help him, but another spider blocked her road.

Zhalia looked around and saw more and more spiders appearing from the shadows. Her horse was scared, frozen of fear, just like the others. It responded to nothing any more.  
_Dammit  
_She jumped of her horse. It ran off immediately, into the darkness of the trees.  
The fog was getting thicker and thicker and she couldn't see a thing. Somewhere far away she could hear the sound of voices… _Where are the others?  
_Suddenly something big and hairy hit her in the side, and she fell on the ground. When she opened her eyes she saw a giant spider standing right above her, its black jaws shining dangerously.  
"Aaaah!" She screamed, and she kicked the spider as hard as she could. The spider shrank back for a second, enough for her to scribble up quickly, and run away.  
"Lok! Dante!" She yelled.

"Heeeelp!" Somebody screamed, and she saw a blue flash.

_Lok! _She ran towards the flash, but couldn't see him anywhere.  
_That goddamn fog!  
Wait a minute.. fog… water… ice…!  
_She closed her eyes, concentrated herself and turned the tiny water drops of the fog into snow.  
When she opened her eyes she saw a giant spider wrapping Lok in silk.  
"Oh no you don't!" She said, and swept away the spider with a snow slide.

"Boltflare!" Dante yelled, and a dazzling light appeared, making all the other spiders flee. The spiders couldn't stand the bright light.  
"Is everybody okay?" He asked, with a the light still in his hand.

"I'm fine." Sophie said. "But my horse is gone."

Dante nodded. "Yeah all horses are gone, they were scared."

"Ah man, this is disgusting." Lok said with a contorted face, while he tried to free himself from the sticky spider silk.

"Oh Lok, you're okay!" Sophie and Cherit said in chorus.

"Well, thanks to Zhalia with her snow- moves." He said.

Sophie looked at Zhalia with a relieved glance. "Thanks Zhalia, maybe my first impression of you was wrong."

"Excuse me? And what was that impression?"

But Sophie ignored her question and started to help Lok.

_**The edge of the Siccitas- desert**_

**Sophie**

After a two- hour walk the team had reached the edge of the Siccitas- desert, Queen Scarlet's kingdom. They looked at the old wooden plate in front of them.  
_Danger_  
The word was written in blood- red paint.  
Cold shivers ran down Sophie's spine.

"Maybe this was a bad idea, I've just recovered from the spiders." Lok said.

Dante took a look at the map. "We've come this far, no way we're goanna turn around. And luckily Queen Scarlet's palace isn't in the middle of the desert, it's only three hours walking from here."

Sophie stared to the endless golden sand hills, it looked very little inviting. She couldn't shake off the sudden feeling of impending doom.  
"I don't know Dante, you've heard the rumors about Scarlet to, one calls her the evil card queen, or the witch of the red tower."

"Oh Sophie, you mustn't believe everything one sais, there are ridiculous stories about me to." Zhalia said.

Sophie suppressed a sarcastic reply, and sighted.  
"Okay then, but I still got a bad feeling about this."  
_  
__**Somewhere in the desert**_

**Dante**

The team stumbled through the sand, while the ruthless burning sun made the air feel like a sauna.**  
**Dante wiped the sweat of his forehead, he had never been so warm in all of his life. He looked at the red heads of Sophie and Lok, who were probably feeling exactly the same way. An exhausted looking Cherit was sitting on Lok's shoulder.  
_Wait.. where's Zhalia?_

He stopped and looked over his shoulder.  
"Zhalia?"  
She had fallen behind and was sitting on her knees in the sand. Quickly he walked towards her, with Sophie and Lok on his heels.

"Zhalia, are you okay?"

"Yeah I- I'm fine.."

She didn't looked fine. Despite the heat she was as pale as a sheet and shivering.

"Zhalia don't lie to us you look awful." Sophie said worried.

Zhalia sighted.  
"It's just.. I'm feeling so cold and weak…"

"Cold? This desert is just like an oven!" Lok said confused.

"It's obvious that the heat is making you, an ice cervix, sick. Oh Zhalia why haven't you told us this?" Sophie said.

"How the hell should I know, I don't come out of Snowland very often." Zhalia said rigid.

Dante looked at her with a worried glance. "We should go back."

"No! We're almost there!" She stood up demonstratively.  
"See? I'm feeling better already."

She took a few steps, and fainted. Dante was just in time to catch her.  
"Zhalia? Wake up!"  
But she didn't woke up. All color had disappeared of her face, and her lips were turning blue.  
Dante pulled her up and looked at Lok and Sophie.  
"We have to go back immediately!" He said with a voice trembling of worries.

Suddenly he heard a weird sound behind him, he quickly turned around, and saw an in sand- colored rags wrapped appearance.  
They were surrounded by seven sand- warriors, minions of Queen Scarlet, their hands glowing orange, ready to attack.

"Ehm.. .hey guys, we're looking for Queen Scarlet's palace, our friend here is sick and we also need to talk the Queen, so… there's no reason to fight right?" Lok said nervously.

One of the sand warriors smiled. "There is. Nobody enters the Queen's kingdom without permission. Sand warriors, capture them!"  
"Raypulse!"

"Armorbrand!" Dante yelled.

The other Sand- warriors started to attack to, one of them ran towards Sophie and fired a spell at her. She evaded it, but another sand warrior grabbed her wrists from behind.

"Sophie!" Lok yelled, and for an instant, he forgot about the tall warrior standing in front of him, who used this distraction to give him a hard kick.  
"Ropetrick." He whispered, and magically reinforced ropes started to tie Lok up.

The other sand- warrior did the same with Sophie, and another one with Cherit.

Dante wanted to help them, but was surrounded by the four remaining warriors. And he couldn't do much, because was holding the unconscious Zhalia.  
_This doesn't looks very good…_

"Give up, or we'll hurt your friends."

Dante sighted. "Alright then."  
A sand- warrior suddenly grabbed his arms from behind, and another took Zhalia.

"Hee! Stay off her!" He yelled, but the warrior only smiled.  
He felt ropes started to tie him up, and a hand pushed him forward harshly.  
"Walk! We'll bring you to the queen."

After thirty minutes of walking, a building appeared from behind a sand hill. It was Queen Scarlet's palace, a weird spiral shaped construction of black and white stones, with one red tower in the middle. _Now we know why they call her the witch of the red tower… _It looked a bit like a giant cupcake (not weird because was Scarlet's favorite food).

Dante wished he'd listened to Sophie's presumption.

-

**Oh- oh bad things are going to happen…  
I hope you liked this chapter, let me know what you thought of it! ^^**

__


	7. Chapter 6: Venomous eyes

**H6: Venomous eyes**

_**Queen Scarlet's palace**_

**Dante**_****_

The sand- warriors pushed Dante, Sophie and Lok through the labyrinth of alleys. All of them looked exactly the same; a floor of black- white tiles and walls of old grey stones, dotted with dozens of mirrors, and paintings of Queen Scarlet.  
They reached a big red door. It opened and another big warrior came out, only this one was wearing black rags, and carried a sword.  
_That's probably the general…  
_  
"Bring the leader and the sick girl to the Queen, give the other two-" The general looked at Cherit. "- Sorry three, a nice and comfortable room. The Queen wants to take good care of our unexpected visitors."

The warriors nodded. The one behind Dante pushed him through the door, followed by the one who was carrying Zhalia, and two others.

The hall they entered was just as weird as the rest of the castle. Black- white tiles on the floor, dozens of big mirrors on the walls, and four enormous statues of the Queen, one on each corner of the room. In the middle of the hall was Queen Scarlet, sitting on her throne, while eating an colorful cupcake. On both sides of her stood big fire pits, which reminded him that she was the fire cervix.  
She had a pale skin, green eyes, and red flame- like hair, put up with a golden tiara. She was wearing a red- white strapless dress with a pattern of play cards, trimmed with black lace and golden glitters. In her hand she was holding a fan, also with the pattern of cards and black lace at the edge.  
Dante noticed that she was actually quite pretty, if only she hadn't had such a crazy look in her eyes. It gave him cold shivers, and not in a good way. He also didn't like her clothes, they were so… screaming and showy. Actually this whole palace was like that.

The only good thing was that it was much cooler in here than outside. He looked over his shoulder, to Zhalia, and saw to his great relief that a little bit of color had returned on her face. But she still looked sick though.

"Ahum…?" Scarlet cleared her throat to get his attention.  
"Welcome in my palace baby, tell me… what's your name? And who are your three friends?"

"Well… I'm Dante Vale, and my friends are…." A voice in his head told him that it was probably better if he didn't told Zhalia's and Sophie's real name. "Zina, Sasja and Lok. "

Scarlet smiled, and flapped her fan.  
"Vale… I think I've heard from you, one of the master seekers. A honest man but now you've told me a little lie… You really thought I wouldn't recognize Queen Zhalia? And if you lied about that… you might also have lied about the names of your other two friends?"

"I haven't lied about them."

"Good because there's no reason for that… I'm a very nice person, not a crazy witch or something like that." She giggled, and glanced at Zhalia.  
"The little ice bunny doesn't looks very good. Oh how stupid of her to come here." She looked at Dante, with twinkles of fun in her eyes.  
"I guess you didn't know she can't handle heat?" She stood up , and started walking circles around him.  
"Ah well… That's why you'll never see me in the snow…" She said with a lilting voice.  
Queen Scarlet suddenly stood still right in front of him. Her eyes were the greenest he'd ever seen. It was quite hypnotizing…

_**The palace dungeon**_

**Lok**

The sand- warriors pushed Lok, Sophie and Cherit into a dark room. They closed the heavy wooden door behind them.  
"Heeee!" Lok yelled, and he quickly summoned a light. The room they were in was small, about three by three meters, moist, and empty, except from some hay in the left corner. It was obviously a prison.

"This isn't a nice and comfortable room….! Let us out!" He yelled, but of course nobody answered.

He pointed his hand towards the door. "Touchram!"

"Lok no!" Sophie yelled, but it was already too late. The moment Lok's spell hit the door, it mirrored back and hit Lok. He flew a few meters through the air and crushed into the wall.

"Aaaaw…" Lok moaned.  
_I should have seen that one coming_

"Lok my boy, are you okay?" Cherit asked.

"Yeah I'm fine… but I'm afraid that Scarlet is indeed a dangerous witch…."

Sophie nodded. "She is. And god knows what she'll plan to do with us!"  
She sighted. "I hope Dante and Zhalia are okay…"

_**In the hall, at that moment**_

**Dante**

Dante wanted to say something, but couldn't find the words. His head felt like it was filled with wads of cotton wool. All he could think of were Scarlet's eyes, so beautiful and green, fringed with flames.  
So many colors…  
_I think I love her_

"Tell me baby… why are you here?" She whispered, without breaking the eye contact.

"I love you Queen Scarlet" Dante whispered.

She smiled. "I know but if you want to stay with me, you first need to answer the question…"

_Why ám I here? I don't know… I can't remember…  
It was something with Rassinov… Lok… Sophie… Zhalia  
Zhalia! She needs help_

"Zhalia needs help." He said.

Scarlet's face darkened. "That was not my question, stop thinking of her and answer me!" She yelled, a bit too hard.  
Dante snapped out of it, he realized what happened.

"You tried to hypnotize me!" He yelled at her.

"No, I would never do that." Scarlet said with pretended astonishment.

"Forget it, I won't buy your tricks any more. My friends and I are leaving."

She giggled viciously. "You thought you could leave just like this? Nobody who enters my kingdom will get away with that without consequences. In fact, I'm running out of slaves and you and your friends seem very suitable to me… except her." She looked at Zhalia.  
"You know, I really hate Queen Zhalia. So I've thought up something different for her…"

She turned herself to one of her warriors. "You, go bring Klaus here!"

A few minutes later he returned with the creepiest man Dante had ever seen. He had half- long grey hair and dark eyes, shining maliciously in his sunken face.

"Klaus, may I introduce you to Mr. Vale." She said.  
"Mr. Vale, this is Klaus, one of my most appreciated minions. He is the judge, executioner, and mad scientist of my kingdom."

"What can I do for you, my dear Queen?" He asked obsequious.

"I've got a new victim for your experiments, an ice cervix, that's going to be interesting not?"

"No!" Dante yelled.

Klaus ignored him. "That's sure going to be interesting my Queen, thank you."  
The walked towards the warrior who was holding Zhalia.  
"Bring her to my laboratory, the deepest and coldest basement of the palace. We have nothing to an unconscious victim."

Horrible thoughts haunted Dante's mind, but there wasn't anything he could do. He was tied up, and even if he would manage to free himself, he would be surrounded by minions of the Queen immediately.  
He was completely powerless, and that awful, frustrating feeling was driving him crazy.

"Bring Mr. Vale to a prison, but keep him separated from the other two." Scarlet said to the remaining warriors.

_God, She has locked Sophie, Lok and Cherit too….  
_ _This is all my fault, I have to think up something!  
_-

**O o it doesn't looks very good for the team…. Will they be able to escape next chap?**

Ps: I know scarlet is a bit off character, but she's much more fun this way XD Hope you liked it ;-)__


	8. Chapter 7: The escape, part 1

**H7: The escape, part 1**

_**One of the prisons in Scarlet's palace dungeon**_

**Sophie**

Sophie was sitting with her back against the wall, with tears in her eyes.  
_I wish I'd never left home…_

"Ah man, we have to think up something!" Lok said frustrated, while he was walking circles in the small room.

"Lok stop walking circles, it makes me dizzy." Sophie said rigidly.

"At least I'm trying to make up something instead of just sitting there and being grumpy!"

"Like running in circles is going to help us! And I'm very sorry that being trapped in here isn't making me full of joy!"

"Hey, It's not my fault we're stuck here!"

"Kids, kids, stop fighting. We should put our energy in finding a way out." Cherit said calmly.

Sophie sighted. "You're right Cherit… Lok I'm sorry, I shouldn't have been so angry with you, it's just… I miss home, and I- I'm afraid we'll be stuck here forever…" Tears were now rolling down her cheeks.

"Oh Soph, it's all right, I'm sorry to, I shouldn't have yelled at you." He put his arm around her shoulder.  
"We'll get out of here, I promise."

Sophie buried her face in Lok's shirt. It felt good and comforting. She really hoped he'd be able to keep his promise.

_**Klaus' lab, at that moment**_

**Zhalia**

Zhalia moaned and opened her eyes. She was lying on hard, moist stones, which were very uncomfortable. Carefully she sat up, and examined the room she was in. It was a quite big dungeon, full of cabinets and tables, filled with the weirdest things. Bottles and pots with fluids and powders, animals and plants, blooded knives and needles… Cold shivers ran down her spine.  
_Where am I? What happened? Dante , Lok, Sophie… Where are they?  
_As far as she remembered they had been walking through the desert, towards Queen Scarlet's palace…  
_  
_She wanted to stand up, but had to little energy. She'd never felt so weak in all of her life.  
Suddenly she heard a sound… footsteps. Probably the one who had brought her to this creepy place. By lack of a better plan, she just lied down and pretended to be still asleep.  
She heard someone opening the lock of the heavy wooden door, and walking inside. She opened her eyes a tiny bit, so she could see who'd just came in. It seemed to be a quite old man with grey hair, wearing a black attire. Her breath caught in her throat when he walked towards her.  
"Still not awake huh? That's alright, I have patience…" He said with a sinister voice.

Suddenly she felt scared. This man obviously had no friendly intentions, and there was nothing she could do against him, she was almost powerless here in the desert. All she could do was wait until he'd see through she wasn't unconscious any more.  
_God I wish I'd listened to Peter…_

_**Somewhere in the palace, an hour earlier**___

**Dante**

A sand- warrior pushed Dante, who was still tied up, through the alleys. Another warrior walked in front of them, and there was also one behind them.  
_If I want to escape I must do it now, before they've locked me in a prison… But how? There are three of them and I can barely move my hands…_

But he could move them a little bit, so there were possibilities. The most insane plans crossed his mind.

"We're there." One of the warriors said with a deep voice. They had reached a dead end alley. He walked to a heavy wooden door, and bended over to open it with a big key. The other warriors were looking at him.  
_It's now or never!_

Quickly Dante stepped forward and kicked the warrior who just had opened the door in his back. He fell forwards, into the prison. Dante closed the door behind him, and grabbed the key, which was still in the lock.  
Immediately he was hit in the side by a spell, which blew him against the back wall. The warrior who had fired the spell, walked towards him and pulled him up with two hands.  
"You're going to regret that…" He whispered.

"I think not." Dante said, and he gave him a head- butt. The surprised warrior let go of him for a second.  
"Hyperstrike!" Dante yelled, and he kicked him in the stomach. By the force of the spell, he flew through the air, almost hitting his colleague, and crushed into the stairs at the end of the alley. He didn't get up any more.  
"Man it looks less painful when somebody else does it…" Dante muttered. He wanted to rub his head but realized he couldn't because his hands were still tied.

The last warrior looked at him with fearful eyes. He turned around and ran towards the stairway to call for help.

"Oh no you don't!" Dante yelled. "Stopglue!"

The warrior was hit in his back by a wave of glue. Frustrated he tried to free himself from the sticky matter, but he was only making it worse.  
_Unbelievable… I've actually hit him…!  
_  
"Heeelp, a prisoner's escaping!" He screamed.

Dante didn't liked attacking a helpless enemy, but he had no choice, he had to silence him. So he ran towards the screaming warrior, and kicked him against his temple hardly. The man lost consciousness immediately.

Dante realized the problems weren't over yet. He had to hide the bodies of the two warriors, but first, he had to find a way to free himself from the ropes. He walked towards the warrior who was lying at the stairs, kneeled down, and with his free hand he searched his pockets, in the hope he would find something like…_ A knife! Yes!  
_Quickly he started to saw up the ropes, but it was going to take very long. He anxiously kept an eye on the stairs.  
_I hope nobody has heard the screaming…_

_**One of the prisons in Scarlet's palace dungeon**___

**Lok**

"I've got it!" Lok yelled.

"You have a plan?" Sophie asked relieved.

"The door's protected by magic, right? But the walls aren't!" He said with a big smile.

"I don't think that's going to work Lok… These walls are very thick, and made of almost unbreakable stones."

"Ok maybe I don't have the power to break them, but you're a cervix, right? You have incredible powers!"

"Do you see any plants here? We're in a stone prison in the middle of the desert. All I can do is some healing… but that won't help us very much."

"Dammit I totally forgot about that…" Lok said with a disappointed face.

Suddenly they heard the sound of a key opening a door, their door.  
"Oh no… that's probably one of those sand- warriors…" Sophie said nervously.

"Ok, new plan, when the door opens, I just attack that guy."  
He stood in front of Sophie, ready in fighting position, when the door opened, and a person wearing sand- colored rags came in.  
"Touchram!" He yelled.

The warrior quickly blocked the attack with Armorbrand.  
"Lok, what's wrong with you? It's me, Dante!"

"Dante..?"  
Lok took another look at the warrior and realized that it indeed was Dante.  
"Dante!" He yelled relieved.

"Hush, not so loud." Dante whispered.

"Oh Dante, I'm so glad you're here, where's Zhalia?" Sophie whispered elated.

"I don't know, in the libratory of some freak.. I wanted to free her first but then I heard your voice and well… " He held a up big key. "… This key fits every prison- door."

"But that doesn't sounds very good, we got to help her!" Cherit said.

"Not we, me. I'll go search for Zhalia, and you three go find a way out. Here, I've got some sand- warrior uniforms for you to." He threw a pile of sand- colored clothes on the floor.

"But Dante, we want to help!" Lok said.

"No, sooner or later they're going to find out we've escaped. You have to leave this cursed palace before it's too late."

"But-" Sophie wanted to protest to, but Dante interrupted her.  
"I've made my decision, put on these clothes and go!"

Lok and Sophie nodded, and Dante left.

"I hope Dante knows what he's doing…" Lok muttered.

_**Klaus' lab**_

**Zhalia**

Zhalia didn't knew how long she'd been lying on this floor now… 30 min? 2 hours? Maybe more, maybe less.  
She opened her eyes a little bit again. The creepy old man was standing behind a table in the left corner of the room. He stood with his back towards her. She looked to the door, it stood ajar.  
Carefully and slowly she started to crawl towards the door. When she'd reached it she glanced to the man. He was still standing there, engrossed in whatever he was doing. Inch by inch she opened the door. But unfortunately the hinges suddenly made a loud squeaking sound. Her blood ran cold.  
_Ok, no panic, maybe he hasn't heard it…_

She looked over her shoulder. The creepy man was standing right behind her.  
_Great…he has heard it…_

"Well, well what's going on here?"

"Nothing much really, I just wanted to go take a breath of fresh air…"

"Sorry but I can't allow that."

She screamed when he pulled her up by her hair, and threw her on an empty table.

"If you're fit enough to try to escape, you're also fit enough for my experiments." He said with a malicious smile.

_**Somewhere in the palace**_

**Dante**

_The architect of this palace is a moron!  
_Frustrated Dante ran through dozens of alleys and stairways. He didn't know where to go, only that he had to go down, because that Klaus- guy had said that his lab was the deepest and coldest place of the palace.  
Suddenly he heard a scream.  
_Zhalia!_

The sound had came from the left. Quickly he ran through the alley, until he saw a stairway on his left hand. He went downstairs, and saw a half- open wooden door at the end of the alley. Without hesitating he burst into the room.

"Zhalia!" He yelled.  
Klaus was pushing her on a table with his left hand, while holding a with green stuff filled needle in his right.

"Dante…" She said with a weak, but relieved voice.

"How did you get here?" Klaus said angrily. "Poisonfang!"

Dante had already expected an attack, and jumped aside to avoid it.  
"Dragonfist!"

"Stoneglove!" Klaus yelled.

When their fists hit each other, Dante was blown back, and he crushed into a cabinet. Dozens of bottles and pots perished.  
Dante was a bit dazed for a second, and when he opened his eyes, he saw Klaus standing in front of him.

"You shouldn't have come here Mr. Vale….. Poisonf-"  
Suddenly he collapsed. Zhalia had smashed a glass bottle on his head.

"Good for you." She said.

Dante stood up. "Thanks Zhalia, that was just in time."

She smiled. "I'm the one who has to say thanks."

He walked towards her and hugged her.  
"I'm so glad you're okay." He whispered.

"And I'm so glad you're here." She said, and looked him right in the eyes.

He realized she was very close now, to close. And that he liked it. He could count the golden sparkles in her brown eyes. He caressed her back while slowly moved his face even closer to hers…

They both startled when suddenly a enormous explosion let the palace shake.  
"What was that?" Zhalia asked

_Lok and Sophie!  
_"We have to go, can you walk?"

"I don't know…" She let go of him and tried to walk a few steps but Dante saw that is was not going very well. So he quickly picked her up in bridal stile, and ran upstairs, towards the source of the explosion.

**What happened with Lok and Sophie? Will the team be able escape from Queen Scarlet's revenge? You'll find out next chap…. ^^**__

_****_

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	9. Chapter 8: The escape, part 2

**H8: The escape, part 2**_****_

Somewhere in the palace, an hour earlier

**Lok**_****_

Lok and Sophie walked through trough the alleys of the palace. Because of the sand- warrior uniforms Dante had given them, they didn't looked conspicuous, even Sophie not, because the uniform included a face- covering scarf, and from that nobody could see Sophie was actually a girl.  
Lok had hidden Cherit under his shirt.  
"Cherit, stop moving, it tickles."

"Sorry Lok but it's not very comfortable down here." __

They reached a long alley. It looked different than the others. The floor was covered with red carpet, and the walls with golden candlesticks. There was a big red and black door all the way at the left end of the alley, and one all the way at the right.

"I think we have to go right." Lok said.

"No! We have to go left." Sophie said.

"Sophie we've gone left a few minutes ago, so if we go left again, we'll be walking in circles."

"No we won't, we're on another floor now."

"But my instinct sais we have to go right!"

"And my instinct sais we have to go left!"

"Hey you two!" A big sand- warrior approached them.

Sophie and Lok looked at each other with a worried glance.  
_Has he seen through our disguise?_

"Ehm… yes my fellow colleague, what's wrong?" Lok asked with a low voice. He tried hard not to look scared or suspicious in any way.

"Follow me to the queens bedroom, she wants to reformat it."

_Dammit we have no time for that… but we can't refuse because than he'll suspect something…_

_**Queen Scarlet's bedroom**_

**Scarlet  
**  
Scarlet stood with her arms crossed in the middle of her enormous bedroom, her foot tapping impatiently. The door opened, and finally her minion returned with two others.  
She snorted. "Those two don't look very strong…"

"Sorry my Queen but these were first I encountered."

She sighted. "Whatever… Let's see… I want you to move the couch to the window, and my bed against the back wall, instead of the closet."

The big minion ran towards the couch, and started pushing it towards the windows, but the two newcomers just stood hesitatingly in the doorway.

"Well, what are you waiting for?"

"Ehm.. Sorry my Queen but isn't it more convenient if we just use a spell to move your… precious furniture?" The tallest one of the two asked.

She sighted. _It hard to get a good work force nowadays..!_  
"No I want you to use that lazy arms! Or do you prefer I just chop them off?"

Her word had effect, the two rushed towards the couch and started to help pushing. Scarlet smiled contently.  
"A little more to the right!"

_**40 min later**_

Scarlet sat behind her dressingtable, and put pink crème on her face. Just like the other hundreds of crèmes, lotions and perfumes on the table it was made by her scientist Klaus, and should ensure that she remained eternally beautiful.  
She admired herself in the mirror. _Klaus is a genius, I look better every day! And once that awful ice- queen's dead, I'll sure be the most beautiful woman of Wereld! And then Lord Rassinov will definitely fall in love with me…_

"We're done Queen Scarlet." A tired voice said.

She looked over her shoulder and saw her three exhausted minions standing behind her.  
"Hmmm." She stood up and started to examine her room. "I think my bed stood better at its old place… Slide it back."

"What!" The smallest minion yelled with a high, indignant voice. A very high voice. Suspiciously high.

Scarlet frowned. Now she took a better look at him she noticed his eyes were pretty feminine to. And he was very slim build…  
" You, put your scarf down, show me your face. "

"Ehm that's not possible, I'm sick and don't want to contaminate you."

"You won't , I have a very good immune system." She walked towards the minion and put down the scarf herself.  
_I knew it!  
_"You're not one of my warriors, you're not even a man!" Scarlett's eyes flashed of anger.  
"Who are you?"

**Sophie**

_Oh hang it!_ _How could I've been so stupid?  
_  
"Well who are you?" The furious looking queen asked to her again.

Sophie stepped a few steps back. "I'm a… kitchen help, I've always wanted to be one of your loyal warriors..." The excuse sounded weak, Sophie had never been a good liar.  
_She's so not going to fall for this._

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard." Queen Scarlet said.__

Sophie glanced at Lok, and saw her own fear reflected in his worried blue eyes. _What should we do now?_

"Nobody lies to me without consequences…" Scarlet whispered viciously, her hands covered with a fire- like aura.

"Sophie look out!"  
Lok's scream resounded in her head when Scarlet shoot a fire- beam at her. She was frozen of fear, but just before the fire hit her, Lok jumped into her, and pushed her to the ground.

An enormous fire- explosion ripped the room to pieces, when Scarlet's attack missed Sophie, and hit the dressing table. Her beauty remedies appeared to be extremely flammable.

The smoke cleared, and it seemed impossible anybody had survived the explosion. The walls and ceiling of the room were partly blown away and all the furniture was charred.

_We're not dead! But how?  
_Sophie opened her eyes, and saw what had saved their lives; a magical blue shield Lok had called.

"Sophie are you alright?" Lok asked to her.

Sophie sat up and hugged him. "Oh Lok of course I'm alright, thanks to you, you've saved me."

Lok blushed. "Ah well… It's nothing really.."

"Nothing? You're a hero!" She said, and kissed him on his cheek. He became, if possible, even more red.  
Suddenly Cherit came from below Lok's shirt.

"What happened? I heard an incredibly loud bang, but couldn't see a thing!"

Sophie and Lok laughed. More from relieve than because of what Cherit said.

"So… Scarlet's dead?" Lok asked.

"Not quite…" A voice said. They turned around and saw Scarlet standing a few meters away from them. Hair was disheveled and her clothes were torn and stain, but she was still alive.  
"No fire can kill me… but it will kill you!"

Suddenly she saw Cherit, and her eyes became big when she finally understood who they were. "But that's not possible! How'd you escaped?" She yelled.

Sophie realized that they were trapped here, and would never win a fight with Queen Scarlet, so they had to keep on talking, until Dante and Zhalia came. If they came. But she also realized that Scarlet's minions would seize on the explosion to. She could already hear voices coming closer.  
_Please Dante, hurry up…_

"You would very much like to know that huh?" Lok said sturdy. "I guess you're prisons aren't as good as you think."

"Don't challenge me silly boy, you have no idea where I'm capable of…" She said with a hissing voice, her green eyes flickering dangerously.

Sophie suddenly felt that Cherit, who was sitting on her shoulder, started to shiver.  
"Those eyes… I've seen them before…." He whispered anxiously.

Scarlet smiled. "So haven't forgotten about me little bat- monkey? Well that's-"

"Queen Scarlet!" A voice interrupted her.

**Lok**

"My Queen, what happened, is everything okay?" Scarlet's general had just ran into the remains of the room, followed by at least five other warriors.

_Great now there's really no way to go…  
_  
Suddenly he noticed Lok, Sophie and Cherit, and a scared look appeared on his face.  
"But- but that are the prisoners, I'm sorry Queen, I didn't knew they'd escaped." He said with a begging voice.

"Spare me your excuses, I'll punish you for this later, but first these three." Queen Scarlet said. Her hands glowed up with fire again, and she slowly walked towards them.  
"If you want to do something good, you have to do it yourself… Aaah!"  
Suddenly she was hit by a blue energy- beam that had came out of nowhere.

Lok looked around, searching for the person who had done this.

"Lok! Sophie! Up here, quick!" A familiar voice said.

Lok looked up, and saw Dante, who was holding Zhalia, through a big hole in the ceiling.

"You…" Scarlet said with a hoarse voice, while she scribbled up.

_This is our chance!  
_"Come Sophie!" He picked her up. "Hyperstride!"  
Lok knew this spell wasn't his specialty, but it was their only chance. He prayed that it would go well, and it did. He jumped through the hole in the ceiling, landed next to Dante and Zhalia, and put Sophie down. From up there he could hear Scarlet's furious voice screaming: "Destroy them!" and several voices yelling: "Hyperstride!"

"Run!" Dante yelled.  
They ran over the roof of the palace. "We have to jump down!" Lok said.

"No!" Sophie yelled. "Then they'll have us in no time."

"Do you have a better idea?" Dante asked, while he tried to keep off Scarlet's minions.

Sophie looked around, searching for a solution. Her eyes lingered on the big red tower in the middle of the roof.  
"Follow me!" She said.

"Wait a second, I know a way to give us a bit more time… Darkfog!" Dante said, and the roof suddenly was shrouded in black smoke.

_Great idea! Now they'll think we've jumped down, to flee through the desert!_

Accompanied by the confused cries of Scarlet's warriors, they followed the shadow who was Sophie to the tower. To Lok's surprise there was stairway around it, which led all the way upwards.

They were almost at the top, when they were nearly hit by flying spells.  
"It seems they've finally realized we haven't jumped down…" Zhalia said.

Lok looked down to the dozens of little figures on the roof, who were firing spells at them, while running towards the tower.  
"We have to hurry! Sophie were exactly are we going to?"

"Just trust me Lok!" She said.

When they'd finally reached the top Lok saw to its great surprise a couple of dangerous giant- eagles.  
"Wait… that's your plan? To let us tear in little pieces by eagles instead of Queen Scarlet?"

Sophie gave him a annoyed glance. "Of course not!"

"Well, whatever you're planning to do, do it quick!" Dante said, while he glanced at the rapidly approaching warriors.

Sophie walked carefully towards to the eagles, who flipped their wings warningly.  
"Sophie… be carefull." Lok said worried.  
To his great surprise she suddenly started to make weird creaking sounds. The eagles made the same sounds, and it almost like they were talking.  
_Ok now I've seen everything…_

Sophie turned around and smiled. "It's settled, they want to give us a ride."  
She giggled when she saw the stunned faces of her friends.  
"What? Haven't I told you I can talk to animals?"

"Aaah!"  
Pieces of stone flew around when a beam of fire hit the tower.

"It's Scarlet!" Cherit said.

"Let's go!" Sophie yelled, and she jumped on top of one of the eagles. Lok climbed clumsy behind her, and tried hard not to pull of any feathers.  
Next to them Dante and Zhalia did the same thing.

"Stop!" A voice yelled, and Lok looked over his shoulder. The sand- warriors had reached the top the tower. The hand of the front- one glowed up orange, ready to fire a spell at them, but Lok was faster. "Touchram!" He yelled, and the warrior flew back, crushed into two teammates, and together they fell off the tower.

Suddenly the eagles spread its wings, jumped of the tower, and flew away. Lok smiled when he looked to the shrinking silhouette of Scarlet's palace.  
_Unbelievable, we did it!_

_**The castle's roof**_

**Scarlet**

Scarlet stared pensive to the 2 shrinking dots in the sky.  
_How could they've escaped? It's just not possible!_

Suddenly her general interrupted her wondering.  
"My Queen, I'm sorry but they've escaped… Please forgive me."

She felt like vent all her anger on him, but this was all more her fault than his. She should have just killed them when she had the chance.  
"It's okay general. You've done what you could."

Her general looked at her with a surprised and relieved look on his face.  
"Thank you my beautiful and forgiving Queen… Shall I warn Lord Rassinov about them?"

"Do you think they'll be a threat for his plans?"

"I don't know, it's a quite odd travel companion, and we don't know why they were here in the first place."

She sighted. She'd assumed that they'd crossed her desert accidentally, but now she thought about it better, it seemed more and more logical that they had been here for a reason. Scarlet realized she'd made a second mistake, she should have forced them to tell her why they were here. Now it was too late.  
_What to do now? Should I tell Rassinov about them? Maybe they know about his plans, although I don't see how… but maybe they don't know anything, and I don't want to bother him for nothing…_

But it was a good excuse to see him again, Lord Rassinov… The thought of him made her feel butterflies in her belly. Together they'll be the feared rulers of whole Wereld…  
"I've made a decision, I'll notify Lord Rassinov personally. I want to leave within a few days, so prepare everything for my departure."

"Yes my Queen."  
**-**

Jeej they've escaped (I admit, on a very fetched way, but still XD)

Next chap they'll continue their trip to the underworld… but what great dangers will wait for them there? What's Scarlets and Rassinovs evil plan? And will the team be able to stop them?

__

__

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	10. Chapter 9: Port Viridis

**H9: Port Viridis**

_**Somewhere in the sky**_

**Lok**_****_

"So, are we going to fly to the underworld?" Lok had to yell his question to drown the sound of the wind.

Sophie laughed. "Oh Lok, you know that that's not possible right? The world isn't round, it's flat. The only way to reach the underworld is through the Mortuues gap, or through the sea."

"I vote for the gap, that sounds less… wet."

"Yeah vote for that, if you want to die. That gap is full of werewolves, dragons, chimaera and more monster who like nothing better than eating you alive. No, we're going through the sea…. Look, you can already see Port Viridis!"

She pointed straight ahead. Lok looked over her shoulder and admired the beautiful view.  
"Wow that's so cool!"  
The colorful houses of the port beamed in the light of the sunset. Numerous boats floated peacefully in the greenish blue of the endless ocean.

Suddenly he felt a strange feeling in his abdomen; the eagles had started to land.

_**Back on the ground**_

**Zhalia**

Zhalia inhaled the cool sea breeze. She felt so much better than in the desert.  
Suddenly somebody put a hand on her shoulder.

"You're feeling better?" Dante asked.

"Yes, I feel almost perfect again, ready to kick some underworld asses if necessary."

Dante sniggered. "Let's first find a way to come there."

"Yeah how are we going to come there? Don't we need a boat or something like that?" Lok asked. He, Sophie and Cherit had just came walking along, after taking leave of the eagles.

"Well I have a friend here, who might be just crazy enough to want to help us." Dante said with a smile.  
"Follow me."

They followed him through the busy little streets of the port. Zhalia had never been to a place like this, such an overwhelming chaos of colors, sounds and scents.  
The buildings were yellow, blue, orange or green, with even a few pink ones. People were everywhere, shouting, talking, singing, accompanied by the everlasting cries of the seagulls . The salty smell of the sea stung in her nose, sometimes mixed with the scent of bread, fish, iron, smoke, alcohol and who knows what more.

"He should be here somewhere…" Dante said.

They had reached a broad quay near the shipyard, with several ships alongside.

"Captain Montehue!" He yelled swiftly.

**Dante**

"Dante vale!" A hard low voice yelled surprised.  
The big posture of Dante's old friend and competitor Captain Montehue appeared in front of them.  
"What brings you here?"

Dante smiled, and the hairy face of Montehue smiled back to him.  
"Me and my friends are looking for someone who wants to give us a lift to the underworld."

"Good luck with that. Nobody here is weary! Especially not me!"

"May I remind you that you still owe me something for what happened three months ago?"

Montehue gave him an irritated glance, like he was he was plagued by an unpleasant reminder. He grunted something unintelligible, sighed deeply, and eventually gave him an unexpectedly sharp blow on his shoulders.

"Very well then! Life is no fun if you don't take risks right? But then you owe me something…."

"Thanks Monty. I'll buy you a couple of drinks."

"You'd. And never ever call me like that again or you can go rowing to the underworld." He laughed at his own joke. "By the way, you haven't introduced me to your friends yet."

"That's true. This are Zhalia Moon, Sophia Casterwell, Lok Lambert and Cherit." Dante said.  
"Guys, this is my old friend Captain Montehue."

"Wow! So you're a real Captain? Which ship is yours? You have a big crew? How far is it to the underworld?" Lok asked enthusiastically.

Montehue sniggered. " I like your energy kid. Let me give you all a little tour…"

Dante and Zhalia walked behind Montehue, who was proudly was telling one of his sailor stories to the others.

"So.. what happened three months ago?" Zhalia asked to him.

Dante sniggered. "That's actually pretty funny… You see Monty was playing cards in dingy pub with an unknown woman and -"

"Dante! That story's forbidden!" Montehue yelled at him sorely.  
He grabbed Zhalia's wrist and gently pulled her away from Dante.  
"Don't believe a word of what he says… Let me tell you a far more interesting story, about the day I killed a giant sea- snake that attacked my ship, the famous Searuler…."

Dante sighted deeply. He already started to regret he'd asked Montehue for this.  
_And we haven't even left…_

_**On board of The Searuler, the next morning**_

**Sophie**_****_

_Oh god I've never felt so nauseous in all of my life….  
_Sophie was hanging over the board of the softly rolling ship, and stared at the foamy waves.

"Sooph, isn't this great?" Lok asked eagerly.

Sophie moaned of misery as response.

Lok chuckled. "Don't worry Sooph, we're almost at the edge of the upper world, So we're nearly half- way there."

_Oh no we're not even half- way there!_

Suddenly she spotted a ship with black sails. "What's that?"

"I don't know…"

"I do, that's the Seadevil, the ship of an infamous pirate called The Professor." Montehue, who just came walking along, said ominously.  
"And it's coming our way…"

He smiled soothing when he saw Sophie's and Lok's frightened faces.  
"Don't worry, no pirate has ever hijacked my ship… although there was that one time… but that one doesn't counts because I've re-hijacked it back."

"You got to be kidding me…" Sophie said desperately.  
But the pirate ship raised a black flag with a with skull on it, so the intentions were clear.  
Sophie moaned again.

**Lok**

"Raise the sails! Everybody get to work! We'll show this 'Professor' how fast this ship can be!" Montehue yelled to his crew. He pushed his mate aside and grabbed the rudder.

"Why do one calls him The Professor? I thought pirates had… tough names like Blackbeard or something like that."

Montehue laughed. "He isn't a scientist if you mean that.. .actually his name doesn't makes any sense at all, I bet he has made it up himself."

Lok glanced at the big ship, which had started the chase. He really didn't felt like meeting this 'Professor'

**-**  
**Pffff…. Finally I've found some time to write this new chap, hope you liked it…. ^^**_****_


	11. Chapter 10: Fighting in the storm

**H10: Fighting in the storm**

_**On board of The Searuler**_

**Zhalia**_**  
**_  
They were now almost at the edge of Wereld. Zhalia could already see the Vertex; a big whirlpool that lead to the underworld. All they had to do was reach it before the Professor had caught them, even he feared the dangerous waters of the underworld.  
But the pirate ship was coming closer and closer, while dark clouds packet together above the increasingly becoming more savage sea. It amplified the threat of the quickly approaching danger.  
_I'm afraid we're not going to make it…._

Zhalia looked around. She saw Dante and Lok, who were helping the ship crew, and in a corner of the ship she saw Sophie, who was sitting on the deck with her back against the board. Her face had a pale, washed out tint with a hint of moss-green and the grey color of the cloudy sky. In short, she was very seasick. Cherit was sitting on her shoulder to comfort her.

Captain Montehue was standing behind the rudder, clearly in his element. Zhalia walked towards him.  
"Montehue we aren't going fast enough, the pirate ship is gaining on us."

"Don't worry honey, I've got everything under control! Look, we're almost at the-"

Suddenly everybody startled of a loud cracking sound. The pirate ship had shot a big grappling hook, attached to a thick rope, into the bow of the ship.

"Should we worry now?"

"Ehm… maybe… Crew! Cut through that rope!"

Several man grabbed their sword. "Fireblade!" They yelled, and their swords wrapped in colorful flames. After a few seconds they had cleaved the rope, but the pirate ship almost immediately shot two new hooks into the bow.  
The ship was retrieved as a fish on an angling line.

Everybody looked at Montehue, awaiting his command. Suddenly he drew his sword.  
"We'll show those pirates who's the boss here!"

All the men howled and drew their swords to.  
Lightning flashed in the dark sky, giving an ok- sign for the rain to fall.  
The two ships were now lying bow to bow, and with their flaming swords ready to fight, the in dark, shoddy clothes dressed pirates attacked.

The sound of metal against metal mingled with the sound of the driving rain, and the barren waves pounding against the ship.

Rain and wind clouded Zhalia's vision, as she searched for Dante and the others in the chaos of fighting men.  
Suddenly a creepy pirate stood right in front of her.  
"Are you going somewhere sugar?"

Before she could do anything, Montehue stabbed him from behind with his green flamed sword.

He smiled. "Stay close to me Zhalia, I'll protect you."

Four man rushed towards them, and Montehue raised his sword, but before he could do anything, Zhalia turned the dripping pirates into ice.  
"Who sais I need protection?"

Finally she spotted the others. Dante's red flamed sword chopped down pirates one after another. He was trying to keep them away from Lok, who tried to protect Sophie with his blue flamed sword as best as he could.  
Zhalia was impressed, she didn't knew Dante was such a good sword fighter.

Suddenly a really big wave crushed into the ship, making almost everybody lose their balance. A loud cry made her blood clot her veins. Sophie, and some other men, had fallen overboard.****

Lok

"Sophie no!" Lok yelled, and without hesitating, he jumped after her.

Every fiber of his body protested when he submerged into the freezing cold water. Gasping for breath he resurfaced. The salty water stung in his eyes, but he ignored the smarting feeling, and searched for a sigh of Sophie in the cold dark chaos around him.

"Sophie!" He yelled as hard as he could, but the noise of the crushing waves and rain drowned out all the other sound.

Suddenly he saw a white spot.  
"Lok!"

"Cherit!"

"Lok, follow me, Sophie's over there!" He pointed to the left and for a second, Lok saw a flash of Sophie's hair. He started swimming towards her, but it was very hard. Every few seconds a wave came over him, and the ocean currents tried to pull him in every direction but Sophie's.  
Still he refused to give up. _Hang on Sophie!_

**Dante**

Dante saw Lok jumping overboard. He wanted to help him, but was distracted by the sudden sound of men screaming. He saw a purple flash in the corner of his eye, and looked over his shoulder. A big man with one wooden leg, wearing a long dark- grey coat and a dark- purple head stood in the middle of the deck. It was the Professor. With one move of his purple flamed sword he blew five men away.  
"Enough!" He yelled.

A deep silence fell.  
"I give you all a choice: Surrender, or die."  
He continued. "Who's the captain of this ship?"

Montehue stepped forward.  
"That's me!"

"So, what's your decision?"

"Ehm…."

"If you surrender I'll spare your men and let them join my crew." The Professor said graining.  
Suddenly he spotted Zhalia.  
"… And the lady over there can keep me company during the lonely nights…"

Now he had gone too far. Furiously Dante stepped forward.  
"We'll never surrender." He yelled, and pointed his sword towards the Professor.

"Very well , then the dead of every man and woman on this ship will be your fault. Pirates, attack and show no mercy!"

Everybody started fighting again, and Dante had a hard time trying to block the Professors attacks. He was not for nothing the most feared pirate of Wereld.  
Dante pulled out to the right, but Professor evaded the attack. Dante was now a bit out of balance and the Professor used that to strike the sword out of his hand. It flew over board.  
He pointed his purple flamed sword at Dante's throat.  
"Seems you're done mate….Aaah!"  
_Zhalia!_

A sword had pierced the Professors back from behind. For an instant Dante thought it was over, but then, the professor pulled the sword out of his back again, and while the blood spurted from the wound, he whispered. "Everfight."

The bleeding stopped and the wound healed. He turned himself to Zhalia.  
"To bad you're not a seeker. A non- deadly wound caused by a normal sword can be healed by Everfight…. A wound caused by a fire sword however, not…."  
He raised his sword to stab Zhalia, but Dante jumped in front of her. He wanted to use Armorbrand, but was too late and the Professors stabbed his sword in his shoulder.

Zhalia's scream resounded in his head when the hot metal pierced his shoulder. A flaming pain shot through his body. He fell on his knees and the Professor raised his sword, ready to give the final blow.  
But suddenly a shield appeared.

**Zhalia**

Zhalia turned around and looked to the one who'd saved them.  
"Montehue! Thank god!"

"Zhalia quickly, go to the rescue boat, find Lok and Sophie, and go through the Vertex."

"But- but what about you?"

"I'll be fine, you have to go now, before the Professor breaks the shield. Only Sophie can heal Dante."

Dante tried to stand up, and Zhalia helped him. His face was pale and his shirt soaked with blood.  
"No… I'm not leaving you Montehue…" He said weakly but determined.

"Dante! Don't be stupid. This is your only chance!"

"But-"

"I'll be fine. Go!" He said.

Zhalia knew Montehue was right, this was their only chance. But she also knew he was lying, he wouldn't be fine.

"Thanks for everything Montehue…." She said.

"Go!" He yelled, and he tried to keep up the shield while the Professor tried to break it with his sword from the other side.

Zhalia gently pushed the feebly struggling Dante into the rescue boat, grabbed a blooded sword from the floor, and cut through the ropes that attached the boat to the ship.  
The boat fell down into the sea. Zhalia grabbed the paddles, and started rowing, while calling Lok's and Sophie's name. She couldn't see or hear them anywhere and horrible thoughts crossed her mind.  
_No! They have to be alive!_

"Dante how are you feeling?" She asked.  
But he didn't answered.

"Dante!"  
She stopped rowing and kneeled down next to him. His face was pale as a sheet and he was barely conscious.

"Dante no please hold on..."

Tears streamed down her face.

He opened his eyes a little bit and whispered. "Zhalia… I want you to know that I…I…"  
Before he could finish his sentence he lost consciousness.

Zhalia now started to panic.  
_No not Dante… not the only man I've ever… O god what do I have to do now? _

Suddenly she heard a vague sound… a voice. "Heeeeeelp!"

_Lok and Sophie!_

She looked around but she couldn't see them anywhere.  
_That damned rain!_

**-Sorry it took me so long to update but it's my exam year and school, work and sports are working together in a big conspiracy** **to give me as little free time as possible…..**

I've wrote this a bit hasty but still hope everybody liked it ^^

Next chap:  
Will Zhalia find Lok and Sophie in time to save Dante? And will they reach the underworld?  
_  
_


	12. Chapter 11: Lots and lots of water

**H 11: Lots and lots of water  
**_**  
Somewhere in the ocean**_****

**Lok**

"Sophie!" Lok yelled.

"Lok!" The cry had been almost inaudible, but it was definitely there, Sophie was still alive.  
**  
**And with that thought in his mind Lok swam towards her, he was almost there, he could see her.  
_O-o…_  
A big wave of salt water came over them, and for a moment Lok lost all sense of direction. The world was nothing more than cold dark water. He tread wildly with his legs until he felt the fresh air again. He gasped for breath, and his eyes searched Sophie, but he couldn't see her anywhere no more….. _No! _He took a deep breath, and dived under water.

There was a vague silhouette in the salty blue-green surrounding him. _Sophie! _ He tread with his legs and swam towards her, ignoring the light tingling feeling in his head. He stretched his hand, and grabbed Sophie's arm. With his last strength he started to swim back to surface, he was almost there, almost, or not? It felt like harder he tried to swim, the slower he went. A invincible force started pulling him down, and the tingling in his head became unbearable…

Suddenly a hand grabbed the collar of his shirt, and before he knew it, he was lying on a hard surface.  
He blinked a couple of times and looked in the worried face of Zhalia.

"Zhalia…" He whispered with a creaking voice, and sat up.

Zhalia was now sitting next to Sophie and jolted her.  
"Wake up, wake up, wake up!" She yelled.

Suddenly Sophie sat up and started coughing, but Zhalia didn't gave her time to recover from her near- drowning.

"Dante's dying, you must heal him!"

Lok was shocked when he saw Dante's blooded fainted body. _What happened on the ship?_

Sophie quickly clattered to Dante, and put her hands on his shoulder.  
"I- I don't know if I have enough energy to do this…" She said with a trembling voice.

"Then make energy, focus, you can do it! You must!" Zhalia said, almost screaming.

"Ok…" Sophie exhaled deeply, and closed her eyes. She started muttering words in weird language, and a white light appeared. But it weakened, flickered, and then suddenly it shined even brighter than before. So bright that Lok had to turn away his face.  
All of a sudden it stopped and Sophie fell back, completely exhausted.

**Dante**

In his head Date saw a white light… _Am I dying? Is that heaven?  
_But he wasn't only seeing the light in his head, he could see it with eyes, even though closed. It was real, just like the rain he felt on skin and the hard wood that was stinging in his back. _So I can't be dead…  
_Slowly he opened his eyes, and sat up.  
"What-"

"Dante!" Lok and Zhalia said in unison.

Zhalia hugged him, and he put his arms around her.  
"I thought you were gone." She whispered.

"Yeah me to." He said, and smiled.

He let go of Zhalia and turned himself to Sophie.  
"Thanks Sophie, you've saved me."

She smiled weakly. "That's what I'm for right? And I couldn't have done it without Lok, he saved me." She gave him a glowing glance.

Lok blushed a bit. "Ah well… Zhalia saved me again, so…"

"And I found you thanks to Cherit." Zhalia said.

"So actually you're the hero of the day Cherit!" Lok said with a big smile.

"No… I haven't done much really…" Cherit said timidly.

"Ehm.. .guys… look over there!" Sophie yelled.

It was the Vertex. It's powerful stream pulled the little boat towards the centre of the whirlpool.

"Everybody, hold on tight!" Dante yelled as hard as could, to drown the deafening sound of the Vertex.

Dante looked over his shoulder, and with pain in his hearth he took one last look to the two ships in the distance.  
_Farewell Montehue…We'll never forget what you've done for us…_

"Aaaaaaaaaaah!" Everybody screamed when the boat was sucked into the deep.

Dante closed his eyes, and grabbed Zhalia's hand with his one hand, and the boat with his other.

Water was everywhere, it pulled and pushed, filled every hole, took away all oxygen . All Dante could do was hold on to Zhalia's hand to make sure she was save, and the boat, their only hope.  
Suddenly a strong force pushed them up, and with a popping sound the boat resurfaced.

**Sophie**

The first thing Sophie thought after she'd shook the wet hair out of her eyes, was : _Wow the underworld sky in really beautiful!  
_The cloudless sky looked just like a painting, it was red, with brush strokes of hundred different tints of orange.

"Wow I can't believe we've survived this!" Lok yelled happily.

"Hush Lok, not so loud, a lot of dangerous creatures life in the underworld waters." Dante whispered.

Lok quickly kept his mouth shut, and looked around nervously. Sophie looked around to, but couldn't see any danger. The water looked peaceful, there were even barely any waves. It seemed her better not to disturb that peace.  
At the horizon she could see the black coast of the underworld, their destination.

"Wait a second… Guys I'm afraid we've lost the peddles." Zhalia whispered.

Everybody moaned.

"Great, what now?" Lok whispered.

A deep silence fell. Then Dante spoke. "I can thing up nothing more than use our powers, and pray that we won't attract attention."

Nobody seemed to know a better plan, so Lok and Dante moved to the back of the boat and said: "Touchram."  
The green power pushed the boat forwards, and the coast quickly came closer.

**Lok**

After a few minutes Lok started to feel tired. It took a lot of energy to keep on using Touchram for such a long time. He looked over his shoulder and saw till his great relieve they'd almost reached the shore. _And without any problems! Finally some luck…_

"Lok, do you see what I see?" Dante said.

"Yeah, we're almost there!"

"No, over there!"

Lok looked forward again and saw what Dante meant; something big under water was approaching them quickly.

Lok and Dante used all their power to go faster, but it wasn't enough, the big thing was coming closer and closer.  
Suddenly it stopped, turned around, and swam back.  
Lok was stunned. _Why did that monster stopped?_

A hard blow answered his question, they'd crushed into the coast.  
"Aaaaah!"  
Lok flew through the air until he hit something hard. He spit out some pebble- sand, it was good thing they'd hit the pebble beach instead of the stone pier which was a few meters away from them.

"Is everybody okay?" Dante asked, as they stood up.

"Yeah fine, but are you two deaf? We've warned you we were there." Zhalia said.

"Sorry, I guess that sea monster kind of distracted us."

"Whatever… ugh there 's pebble- sand on places really I don't want it to be."

Everybody (except Zhalia) sniggered.

"So are we going to that Port? I'm really hungry and thirsty." Lok said hopeful.

They all looked at the Port. The buildings were all made of dark- grey stone and dark worn wood. It was a bit misty and looked abandoned, definitely not welcoming. But the wilderness next to it seemed even less welcoming. The sharp rocky hills were covered with thick fog, it was almost impossible to see through it.

"Well I guess we don't really have a choice… " Dante said.

So the five of them walked down the black pier, towards the creepy Port.

**-  
Jep, the underworld isn't a happy place…. What horrors will wait in the abandoned (?) Port?**

**Even though this was kind of an in between chapter, I still hope you liked it, reviews are welcome ^^**


	13. Chapter 12: Illusions in the mist

**H12: Illusions in the mist**

_**The creepy Port, Underworld**_****

**Lok**

It was unnaturally quiet in the streets of the Port. The only sound came from their footsteps on the moist tiles.  
Cold shivers ran down Lok's spine. Sophie grabbed his hand, and he squeezed it comforting, as their eyes searched for a sign of life and/or danger. But there was nothing but misty shadows.

"Lok! Over here!"

"Cathy?"

It was his sister Cathy, she was standing in front of Mom's bakery, holding a big plate of cookies. His mother stepped outside to.  
"Come in Lok!" She said. "You must be hungry!"

A little voice in his head told him that this was impossible, but that voice was weak and far away. All he felt was happiness and relief.

"I'm coming Mom!" He yelled.  
He let go of Sophie's hand, and ran towards his family.

**Sophie**

"Sophie! Sophie! Over here!" A sweet little voice said.

Startled Sophie looked to the left, and saw till her great surprise a big colorful building appearing between the dreary buildings of the Port. It was a library, and Undecim waved at her from the doorway.

"Undecim what are you doing here?"

She could barely believe her eyes, but weirdly enough she wasn't suspicious at all, it felt… logical that Undecim was here, and that there was a library in this departed place also made perfectly good sense to her. She didn't even noticed Lok had let go of her hand, and she quickly ran towards Undecim.

**Zhalia**

Zhalia was walking next to Dante, in front of Lok and Sophie. This place was really creeping her out, and she glanced towards Dante. Of course he looked completely relaxed, like he always did. It comforted her, and she felt the sudden urge to grab his hand, but she didn't dared to do it though.****

"I'm coming!"

"Undecim what are you doing here?"

Zhalia startled when Lok and Sophie suddenly started to yell. Quickly she turned around and saw them running into the mist like they were little kids who'd just seen a gigantic sorbet or something like that.

"Guys have you gone mad? Come back!" She yelled.

All of the sudden little white snowflakes started to fall down.  
"What the-"

"Zhalia." A familiar voice she hadn't heard for a long time said.

Zhalia turned around and walked past Dante, towards the two persons who'd appeared in the mist. Dante said something but the words didn't got through to her.

"Mom? Dad? Is- is that you?" She whispered amazed.

"Yes, of course it's us." That gentle voice she'd missed so much, the voice of her mother, said.

She looked just like Zhalia remembered, long light blond hair, a pale skin, and gold- brown almond shaped eyes. Her dad had short blue hair, just like hers, blue-grey eyes and a bronzed skin. They were both wearing beautiful white clothes.

"But… you were dead…"

"Dead? How'd you get that silly idea? We were just on a long vacation, but now we're back." Her father said with a big smile.

"Oh I've missed you so much…" Zhalia said, and she ran towards them, with tears in her eyes.

**Dante**

Dante didn't understood what'd gotten into Lok and Sophie.

"Zhalia, we must follow them before they get lost…" He said.  
"Zhalia?"

She was staring blankly into the distance and didn't answered.

Suddenly Dante heard a voice, and running footsteps coming closer.

"Dante! Dante!"

Startled he turned around, and saw a little boy with half- long red-brown hair, and big green- brown eyes running towards him.

"Dan?"

It was his little brother Daniel, who had had an accident a few years ago and died.  
_This can't be real! _Dante pinched himself but Daniel was still standing in front of him.

"Come big brother, let's play knight and dragon, than you can be the dragon and I'll be the knight who must defeat you." Daniel pulled on his shirt.  
"Come, come, come!"

Dante smiled. "Okay, okay, I'm coming..."

**Cherit**

With increasing surprise Cherit saw his four friends talking to persons that weren't there, and running into the mist. Whatever was happening to them, it wasn't good at all, and to make it even worse, all four of them had ran to different directions…._ What should I do know?_ Cherit thought desperately.  
He decided to follow Lok, and called his name while he searched through the dark street. Cherit knew Lok had gone into a building, but which one? They looked all the same.

"Lok! Where are you?"

Suddenly Cherit saw a silhouette in the mist, and he flied towards it.  
"Lok?"

"Waaah!"  
Somebody grabbed him by his tale. It was a big, blond, hairy man. He smiled and revealed his unnaturally sharp teeth.

"What's this?" He said with a hoarse voice.

The silhouette turned around and came walking along. It was definitely wasn't Lok, it was a short woman with a dark skin and short black hair. Around her neck was a prominent necklace; a thin black rope with a purple stone attached to it. Cherit saw the man was also wearing one.

"It's just a bad- monkey Vern, I've heard of them, they life in the upper- world, but I didn't knew they could talk." The woman said.

"Ehm… I'm kind of an exception…" Cherit said.

"Huh… Tell me little animal, why are you here?" The man named Vern asked.

"That's difficult to explain, but you must let me go! I think my friends are in big trouble! They need me!" Cherit yelled imploringly.

Vern and the woman exchanged a concerned look.

"Are your friends human?" The woman asked.

"Yes… what's happening to them?"

"I'm afraid your friends are caught by Caligo's; evil spirits who hide in the mist, and allure travelers who pass by with beautiful illusions. But they're not beautiful for long, they chance in a nightmare and when their victim is paralyzed with fear or desperation, they suck his soul out, to join them."

"Oh no!"

"Delphine, You have more necklaces?" Vern asked to the woman.

The woman named Delphine nodded. "I've got five or six of them… monkey- thing, where did your friends go to?"

"Ehm… Lok is in a building somewhere here, Sophie's in a building across the street, Zhalia went north and Dante south."

"Ok, we have to be quick, before it's too late. I'll go to Sophie, Vern you'll go north. Whoever of us is done first goes south. And you, monkey- thing, go search for Lod."

"Lok."

"Whatever." She took a couple of necklaces out of her pocket, and tossed one of them to Cherit.  
"Just put this around his neck, the stone is magical and protects against the Caligo's."

Cherit nodded. "Thanks."  
**  
Lok**

Lok was sitting on a chair behind a big oak table, and looked around. Nothing had changed since he'd left home, the bakery looked exactly like he remembered it.

"I've baked some muffins sweetie." Lok's mother said, and she put a basket with chocolate muffins on the table.

"And of course you also need something to drink." Cathy said, and she put down a glass of milk.

Lok's stomach growled. "Jummiej!"

He stretched out his hand to grab the glass, but it shove backwards.  
_That's strange… _Lok thought, and he frowned. He tried to grab it again, but again the glass shove back.

"Okay… weird… Ah well, then I'll start with a muffin." Carefully he reached for a muffin, and to his great relief it didn't moved. He grabbed it, and brought it towards his mouth. All of the sudden it started to swell up… it became bigger and bigger, and startled Lok dropped it on the table. There it swelled up to the size of a pumpkin… a small child…. and then it was just as big as Lok himself.

"Waaaaaah!" Lok screamed, and he fell backwards. The muffin was so now so big it had reached the ceiling. But instead of bursting through it, the muffin started to expand in other directions. Frightened Lok scrambled backwards, until he stood with his back against the wall, while the muffin came closer and closer…

**-  
Hmmm I feel the sudden urge to eat a muffin… ^^ You to?**

Ok, I know I was actually supposed to update my other story, but I got some sudden inspiration for this one, hope you liked it!

Saturday I'm going on a one- week city trip to Tuscany, Italy, with school (yes yes I'm going to the sun) So it's going to take some time before I'll update again.

O yeah, and plz. Review! Thnx =)  
xoxo 


	14. Chapter 13: Painful thoughts

**H13: Painful thoughts  
**  
_**Still in the creepy Port, Underworld**_

**Cherit**

"Waaaaah, mom, Cathy, help me!"

Cherit startled when he heard a voice scream. _Lok!_  
The voice had sounded very nearby, so Cherit quickly flew into the nearest building. He prayed he had chosen the right one, because it sounded like Lok was in serious trouble.  
_Please let me not be to late….!_

Suddenly he saw him. Lok was pressing himself against the dusty wooden back wall of the room like the opposite wall was going to squash him. A misty human- like spirit with glowing green eyes stretched his or her arms towards Lok, ready to pull out his soul.

"No!" Cherit yelled, and he threw the necklace Delphine had given him around Lok's neck. There was a flash of bright purple light, and with a high cry the ghost shrank back, and merged into the mist.

Heavenly gasping, and visibly very confused, Lok stood up.  
"Cherit? Where's the muffin? Where's the bakery? What- what happened?"

"It's okay Lok, it was all just an illusion created by an evil soul- stealing spirit… But I'll explain it later, now we have to go find the others. "

_**In a building across the street**_

**Sophie**

Sophie felt like being in a dream- world, filled with books, books and more books. _If Lok was here, it would be completely perfect! _She thought.__

Blissfully she admired the hundreds of meters long bookcases, every shelf filled with dozens of books in all sizes, colors and shapes she could imagine.  
It didn't seemed to ever end. She kept discovering new alleys of bookcases, leading to even more undiscovered alleys. It was book- heaven.__

Suddenly Undecim appeared right in front of her.  
"Follow me Sophie, I'll bring you to Lok, he's also here!" The little green- haired elf said.

"Oh really? I'm so happy! Now we can read together!" Sophie said joyfully.

Undecim flew ahead and Sophie followed her.  
"Not so fast please!" Sophie yelled when Undecim flew faster and faster through the labyrinth of bookcases.

Sophie had to run to keep up with the little elf. Suddenly Undecim flew into an alley on the right, and disappeared. _Where'd she go to?_ Sophie thought. A sudden feeling of impending doom came over her.  
"Undecim! Where are you?"  
Nobody answered.

"Lok?" Nervously Sophie yelled his name, but again nobody answered.

_What do I have to do now?_ She thought. She tried to remember which alleys she had taken, but failed.  
_I'm never ever going to find the entrance again…._

Desperate she just started walking around, while occasionally calling her friends' name.  
Then, a big, thick, dark- green book, on one of the top- shelves, caught her eye. The refined golden letters on the cover seemed to give off a star- like light. Enchanted she walked towards it, to see what the book was about.  
_Sophie Casterwell_  
Sophie's mouth fell open when she saw her name was on the cover of the book. _Would this book tell things about my future? And my past? About who my parents were?_  
She went on her toes, and tried to grab it, but couldn't reach it. Frustrated she jumped, and touched it with her fingertips, but she still couldn't come high enough to actually grab it.

"Damnation…" She muttered.

Suddenly she heard a weird rumbling sound. Quickly she turned around, and saw to her horror a tsunami of big dark- green books coming towards her. __

"Aaaaaaiiihh!" She cried, and ran away from it, as fast as she could. She heard the wave of books behind her coming closer and closer, ready to bury her alive. Of course she stumbled over a red rug, and fell forward. A bit staggered she turned around, and saw the wave of books forming a gigantic snake (and she hated snakes) which long body slowly started to surround her. The book- snake raised his head with glowing green eyes imminent, and opened its jaws as if it wanted to eat her.

"Go away!" She cried, and she wanted to use her powers to scare it off. But nothing happened, her powers didn't worked any more.  
The snake came closer and closer, and its virulent green eyes shined brighter and brighter. The light was all she could see, all she could think of, it filled every vessel of her body, and made her head feel heavy and empty….

But all of the sudden there was a bright purple light, which swept away the green darkness in her mind. It was like she woke up from a bad night of sleep, and panting she scribbled up. Sophie realized she was in a dusty worn out house, and now wearing a necklace with a big glowing purple stone on it.  
"Oh my-"

"Are you okay?" A woman's voice said.

Sophie turned around, and looked into the face of a short dark woman wearing camouflage- colored clothes.  
"Yes, thank you…. Oh my god I can't believe my soul has almost been stolen by Caligo's!"

"Ah so you've heard of them?"

"Well I've read about them… Oh how could I've been so stupid? I should have realized what was going on!"

"It's not your fault, once they've enchanted you, there's nothing you can do…. Though it was a bit stupid of you to come to this port, to such a dark, dangerous place."

Suddenly Sophie remembered the others.  
"Oh no, Lok, Dante, Zhalia!"  
**  
**_**A few minutes earlier, in the north of the Port**_****

**Zhalia**

Zhalia ran and ran, but the distance between her and her parents didn't became less. They were so close, barely six meters, but yet so far away.  
Exhausted she stood still, to regain her breath. All of the sudden it stopped snowing, and the thin blanket of snow on the ground melted away, though there was no warmth, nor sunlight in the red underworld sky.  
Diffused she looked at her parents, but what she saw made her gasp for breath. Their faces had paled, had became grey and dull, just like their eyes, empty and dead, though glowing with a sinister green radiance.

"No…" Zhalia whispered. A sudden intense feeling of coldness tortured her hart, and she shivered. The last time she'd felt like this was at the day of her parents funeral…

Suddenly more people appeared. Dante, Lok, Sophie, Cherit, Mr Coquees, all with glowing green eyes. They all were dead, she was alone. Everybody she'd ever loved was gone.  
Zhalia fell on her knees and put her hands in front of her face, it hurt too much to look at them. But closing her eyes didn't matter. The stinging pain was still there, she could still feel the cold. It came closer, stretched its merciless arms towards her, begging for her soul.

Then, she felt something heavy around her neck. Amazed she put her hands down, and touched the purple stone that radiated a comforting purple light. With a high cry her dead friends turned into ghosts, that slowly merged with the mist. She could still vaguely see their glowing green eyes, before they disappeared entirely.

"Always fun to see that!" A low hoarse voice said.

Quickly Zhalia looked to the right and saw a big, hairy man wearing dark camouflage clothes. He had long nails and long sharp teeth. Without doubting a second Zhalia jumped up, and kicked him right in the face.

"Au, what the- ?" The man yelled, and he put his hand against his bleeding nose.

"You're a werewolf!" Zhalia said, and her hands glowed up ice- blue, ready to attack if necessary.

"Wow wow wow, I'm a vegetarian!" The man said.  
"What a way to thank me for saving your life…" He muttered. "There is no such thing as recognition any more…"

Slowly and cautious, Zhalia lowered her hands. Now she had recovered from the shock and horror, she realized this man had to be the one who had given her this necklace, which had expelled whatever those creatures were.  
"I'm sorry. I guess I've reacted a bit too hasty. " She said, and she put her hands behind her back as a sign of her not going to hurt him again without reason.

"Yeah yeah it's okay… I would have hit me to if I were you." He said, and she snickered.  
"Now let's go save the last guy!"

_Oh no Dante! _  
Zhalia's hart stood still for a moment, and she started running South, with the werewolf- man on her heels.

_**South of the Port, a few minutes earlier  
**_  
**Dante**

"Cool! Dante look over here!"

Daniel was standing on the edge of a small lake, staring intrigued into water.  
Dante walked towards him and looked into the water to. He saw nothing special, just his own reflection. But his face was different, it was younger, it was the face of his little brother. All of the sudden he fell forward, into the lake. Dante prepared himself to get wet, but the expected cold dampness stayed off.  
Dante found himself standing on the bottom of the lake, surrounded by the vague blue- green darkness of the water. Dry water that felt like air.  
Just when Dante started to wonder how the hell this was possible, a person appeared.

"Mom?"

It was his mother, a small woman with big sad brown- green eyes and curling brown hair.  
"Why haven't you saved him Dante?" She whispered.

"I didn't knew he was in trouble, I swear, if had known I would have done anything to save him!"

"He drowned, he drowned because didn't paid enough attention to him…"  
_  
This can't be happening… She's right, it's my fault… No, she would never say these things to me…. I know she blames me, I can see it in her eyes, and she's right to blame me, I should have paid more attention…. But still this can't be happening…._

All these different thoughts struggled in Dante's mind, made his head throb. He wanted these painful thoughts to go away, he wanted to free himself but couldn't. Dante realized something was seriously wrong.

"Dante." The voice of Zhalia said. His mother was gone and now Zhalia was standing where she had stood.  
"Don't try to free yourself… surrender."

Another person appeared, it was Rassinov. He walked towards Zhalia and started kissing her, and she kissed back passionately.

It was too much for Dante. He wanted to look away but couldn't. It felt his hart was slowly getting ripped out of his chest.  
"I can't take this anymore…" He said with a trembling voice, and he fell on his knees. He wanted to surrender, he wanted it to be all over.

_**On that moment  
**_  
**Zhalia**_****_

Zhalia and Vern ran through the misty street, towards the little green lights at the end. It were the glowing eyes of two Caligo's, who had put their arms on Dante's chest as if they were trying to pull something out.  
Dante was on his knees, visibly shocked and pained by an illusion only he could see.

"Dammit where's that extra necklace…" Vern muttered, as he searched through his pockets.

"No!" Zhalia yelled, and she fired a beam of ice towards the evil soul- stealing spirits. Of course it went straight through them, but it did distracted them for a moment. They looked furiously towards Zhalia and emitted a deafening high cry to scare her off.

"I've got it!" Vern said, and he quickly put it around Dante's neck.  
In a bright purple flash the Caligo's disappeared, but Dante was still on his knees, staring blankly into the distance.

"Dante, Dante!" Zhalia jolted him.  
"You think he still has his soul?" Zhalia asked to Vern with fearful eyes.

"I think I have…." Dante said.

"Oh thank god." Zhalia said, and she hugged him. Still a bit dazed Dante stroked her cheek.  
"Zhalia… you're not-"

"Heeey guys!" Lok yelled. He came running along, followed by Cherit, Sophie and another woman.

"Ah, seems the others have already taken care of Dante… Is everybody complete now Clerit?"  
the woman asked.

"It's Cherit actually…. But yes, everybody's save now."

"Sorry but… who are you people?" Dante asked.

"Yeah I would like to know that to." Zhalia said.

"That can be settled." The woman said. "I'm Delphine, and this my friend Vernelucio."

"But please call me Vern." Vernelucio said. "And yes, I am a werewolf, but I'm a vegetarian, I don't eat humans, and can control my transformation." He said quickly when he saw Sophie's suspicious glance.

"We're both rebels, who have revolted against Lord Rassinov's cruel dominion." Delphine continued.

After everybody had properly introduced himself, Delphine suggested they'd best could come with her and Vern to their camp.  
"We don't get much visitors from the upper world down here." She said.

"Thanks, but we don't want to bother you." Dante said.

"It's no trouble at all, besides, if you continue travelling now, you're not going to make it. If it isn't from hunger and thirst, than by Rassinov's soldiers or some monster."

_**Lord Rassinov's castle**_

**Scarlet**_****_

Queen Scarlet's high heels made a tapping sound on the big, dark- grey stone tiles of Rassinov's enormous dining- room.

"Good evening, my Lord." She said to the black- haired man sitting behind a ten meter long wooden dining table.

Lord Rassinov was drinking a glass of wine, and stared preoccupied to a letter which was lying in front of him on the table.

"Queen Scarlet, it's a pleasure to welcome you, as always." He said, without looking at her.

"I've got important news." Scarlet said.

"Ah, me to." Rassinov said with something of a smile. "Please sit down"

_Oh god he's even more handsome than I remember… _Scarlet thought. _Would he propose to me tonight? Is that the important news?_  
She could already hear the wedding bells jingle.

**-This chap the longest I've ever written I think xD Though I found it really hard to write this… so hope it was ok.  
Reviews are being extremely appreciated! ^^**

So, next chap the team will go to Rassinov's castle…and many many unexpected things are going to happen. Will there be wedding bells jingling?  



	15. Chapter 14: Destination reached

**H14: Destination reached**

_**Yet still in the creepy Port, Underworld**_

**Lok**_****_

"We're there." Delphine said.

They had reached a big building, it looked like some kind of town hall. Not really what Lok had expected from a rebel- camp. Rebel camps always made him think of tree houses and campfires in remote forests.

"We've chosen this place because it's big and because Rassinov's soldiers don't dare to come here because of the Caligo's." Vern explained. "They haven't got protecting necklaces you see."

They went inside and entered a quite big hall. It once must have been very beautiful, evident from the wooden paneling, many mirrors, paintings and tapestries, and the big chandeliers. But now everything was covered with a thick layer of dust and spider-webs. All once bright colors had faded and darkened.

Delphine and Vern went upstairs and Lok, Sophie, Zhalia, Dante and Cherit followed them.  
The room they entered next was very different than the hall, it was cozy and filled with people. Some of them were sitting around a campfire in the middle of the room.  
_So there's a campfire after all! _Lok thought contentedly, though it seemed a bit dangerous to him, a campfire inside a wooden building.

Vern saw him looking and snickered. "Don't worry kiddo, the flames are magical and won't flare the building up."

_**Rassinov's castle, on that moment**_

**Scarlet**

"What's your news Lord Rassinov?" Scarlet asked.

"My army is as good as ready for our attack, once your warriors have arrived, we can start our offensive against the Upperworld. "

Of course this was very good news, but nevertheless Scarlet felt a little bit disappointed. She had hoped for more romantic- like news.  
"And… then we will rule whole of Wereld, together, right?" She asked.

"We'll see…" Rassinov said.

The answer didn't satisfied Scarlet. Rassinov noticed and quickly asked her what her news was.

"Well… I don't know if it has anything to do with our attack." Scarlet said. "But a few days ago I had four visitors; Dante Vale, Queen Zhalia and 2 teens."

"What?" Rassinov yelled.

Scarlet startled a bit. She hadn't expected such a heavy reaction from him.

"You've taken them as prisoners?" He asked.

"I have… but they ehm… they escaped." She said, feeling a bit embarrassed when she saw Rassinov's disapproving face.

"Very disappointing… do you at least know what they wanted?"

"Ehm… no, I'm afraid not."

Rassinov sighted. "I hope they're not going to cause any trouble… I assume they won't, it's probably just a coincidence… though Zhalia never leaves Snowland, so that's suspicious….and Dante Vale, that guy is one of those master seekers, always travelling around to 'help people' and more of those nonsense… " Rassinov said, more to himself than to Scarlet.

Scarlet saw he wanted to be alone, and left the room quietly. Rassinov didn't even noticed.  
He grabbed the letter from the table, and read it for the thousandth time.

XxXxXx a little flashback to chap four XxXxXx

_"Queen Zhalia!"_

"Yes Peter, what's up?"

"There are three visitors, well actually four, who want to speak to you. 2 men, a girl and a…. talking white bad- monkey."

Zhalia frowned. "Are you kidding me?"

"No my queen, of course not. And there also a letter… It's from Lord Rassinov."  
He handed her an envelope.

Zhalia opened it and read the letter.  
"How dares he?" She yelled, and tore the letter to tiny pieces.

"What was it about?" Peter asked.

"Ugh nothing, he has invited me to come to his castle and have dinner with him."

"Forgive me my impertinence majesty, but why wouldn't you go? Lord Rassinov is a good party."

"No! He's a creep from the underworld!"

"But majesty there has been peace between the upper- and the underworld for two hundred years now, Lord Rassinov is a honorable man."

"Well if you like him so much, why don't you go have dinner with him. I hope you two will live happily ever after." Zhalia said sarcastic.  
"Now send in those visitors…"

XxXxXx back to chap 14 XxXxXx

**Rassinov**

And that letter was Rassinov holding in his hand. A formal and politically correct rejection of his invitation.  
The message couldn't be any more clearer; Queen Zhalia didn't like him. But he did like her, though he had only seen her one time, when he was on a diplomatic trip to the Upperworld, to promote his new peace and friendship policy. _Peace and friendship… ha! Idiots!  
_That one time he had seen her, he had fallen in love with her (as far as somebody as Rassinov could love anybody), and he wanted to marry her. But clearly those feelings weren't mutually.  
_Ah well, if she won't marry me voluntarily, I'll just force her, after I've conquered whole of Wereld… yes, than she'll have no other choice. _Rassinov though sufficiently. That vision pleased him, he would be the most powerful man of the world, with the most beautiful woman by his side.  
**  
**_**At the rebel- camp**___

**Dante**

Lok and Sophie were sitting around the campfire, telling Delphine, Vern and some others who were interested, about their journey to the Underworld. Dante didn't feel like joining them, and searched for Zhalia. She was leaning against the wall, away from the crowd.  
Dante walked towards her.  
"Are you alright?"

She smiled."Yes, it's just that I have a bad feeling about Rassinov, now we're getting so close to his castle…. We shouldn't hang out here to long I think, we must continue our mission."

"'We'll continue, but a little bit of relaxation will be good I think."

"I guess you're right." _  
_  
The warm light of the campfire shed flickering shadows on the walls. Zhalia stared at them and Dante stared at Zhalia. Suddenly she turned her head and looked him straight in the eyes.  
Dante felt a bit caught but didn't looked away.

"Something wrong?" Zhalia whispered.

"No not at all."

She came closer, very close, so close their lips almost touched. Suddenly Dante felt something of panic and he recoiled.  
**(AN: Nooooooooooooooooooo =P)**

Before he realized what happened, Zhalia stood up.  
"Sorry I have to go ehm… I forgot to say something to… Sophie."  
And she walked away.

Dante had never felt so stupid in all of his life, she had wanted to kiss him and he didn't had the guts to do it. He wanted to smack himself, did this really happen to him? Hím?  
_God she probably thinks that I…_

**Zhalia**

_He doesn't likes me…  
_Zhalia had never felt so stupid in all of her life. _How could I even think he felt the same?  
_She felt like crying but instead of that she quietly sat down next to Sophie, wondering why the one guy she actually liked, didn't like her….

_**Next morning**_

Zhalia was a bit tired, she hadn't slept very well last night. After hours of worrying she had eventually decided to keep some distance from Dante, to prevent any awkward moments. Then she had finally fallen asleep, though still hearth broken.

"Is everybody ready to go?" Sophie asked.

Zhalia, Dante, Lok and Cherit nodded.

"We're also ready." Delphine said.

"Ready for what?"

"Ready to go to Rassinov's castle, Vern and I are coming with you!" She said. "There's no way you're going to find it without us, and besides, if Rassinov really is planning something evil, we want to help stopping him, we're not rebels for nothing."

"Okay okay, you're right, we could use a little help." Dante said.

"Let's go then!" Vern said.

And they went. Protected by their magical necklaces they walked out of the misty village, crossed rivers, ascended rocky mountains, until they reached a (again misty) swamp.

**Dante**

They all looked to the grey-green lowland of water, mud and half- dead grass, shrouded in grayish fog.  
Lok moaned. "That looks very little inviting."

"That's because it isn't." Zhalia said.  
**  
**"Ok, I've got a map which will lead us through the swamp safely, just follow my footsteps carefully, one wrong move and you'll be sucked into the mud." Delphine said, and she pulled a paper out of her bag.  
Followed closely by the others she carefully started walking through the swamp. Every few seconds she took a quick look at the map to see if they were still walking on the save path.

Dante was quietly walking in the rear, last night was still on his mind. He desperately wanted to talk to Zhalia, tell her that he did care for her, so much that it even scared him. But Zhalia was clearly avoiding him, and the chance that they would be alone again anytime soon was very small. It was all pretty frustrating.

"Waaaaaaah!"

Dante startled when Lok screamed.  
_Please tell me he didn't-_

But he did, of course. Lok had stumbled over a tussock of grass, and had fallen into mud.

"Lok!" Everybody yelled.

He was already sunken into the mud to his shoulders, and struggling to get out.

"Lok! Stop resisting, you'll sink even faster when you do that!" Delphine yelled.

"I know I know!" He yelled, but didn't stop struggling.

"Hold on Lok, I'll help you!" Sophie yelled.  
And with one movement of her hand, tree roots shot from the earth, which grabbed Lok's hand, and pulled him out of the mud.  
Panting and covered with dirty brown- green mud, but still alive, Lok lay on the ground.

"Thanks Soph, and sorry guys…"

"It doesn't matter Lok, we had already seen this coming." Cherit said, and everybody laughed, even Lok, though not entirely wholehearted.

_**A few hours later**_

"We're almost there." Vern said. "Once we're on top of the hill, we can see Rassinov's castle."

"Finally… my legs are tired!" Lok said.

They kept walking until they were stood on top of the rocky hill.  
"Wooow." Everybody said impressed.  
Rassinov's castle was a gigantic black building with high towers, all connected by bridges. The castle was build in the middle of some kind of crater, it's high edges protected the castle and the surrounding area as a wall, only interrupted by one big black gateway.  
Together with the dark- red Underworld sky it all looked pretty terrifying.

"Destination reached…" Sophie whispered. After all they had been trough the past 2 weeks they had finally reached Rassinov's castle

"Guys, you see that?" Dante asked suddenly.  
The others saw what he meant, there were thousands of people standing inside the crater.

"Soldiers?" Sophie asked.

"Maybe… we have to take a closer look." Dante said.

They ran down the hill, to the walls of the crater. The walls were pretty steep, but made of harsh black- grey stone and suitable to ascend. So they climbed up the wall until they had a good overlook.

"God it really are soldiers." Sophie said, not to loud so that the soldiers could not hear her.  
They were all wearing shiny black gear, and seemed to be camping outside in expectation of Rassinov's orders.

Dante couldn't believe his eyes, there were so many soldiers…. The situation was even worse than he'd expected.

"So Rassinov really is planning something… and not just something, he's planning on starting a war!" Delphine said.

"We have to warn the counsel!" Sophie said.

"Hey look over there, they have campfires to." Lok said. "Wow, are they roasting marshmallow's?"  
He bend forwards to take a better look at the possibly marshmallow's roasting- soldiers.

"Lok I really think you shouldn't do that…." Zhalia said, but it was already too late, with a cracking sound the piece of rock Lok was supporting on broke, and he fell down. Zhalia grabbed his shirt to save him, but instead of that she was dragged down along with Lok.

"Zhalia no!" Dante yelled.

**-**

Pffff… finally they're at that damned castle….  
Please don't kill me for the not- DxZ scene xD I will make it up to you later on in the story, I promise ^^

Next chap things are going to be pretty moving…. So stay tuned…

O yeah, and plz review!  
(you know you want to =P)  



	16. Chapter 15: New plans

**H15: New plans**

_**Inside the crater, Underworld**_

**Zhalia**_****_

"Waaaaaah!"

Zhalia and Lok rolled of the steep, wall- like descent, and with a harsh blow they landed on the rocky lowland.  
Zhalia moaned. Her head hurt and she was covered with scratched, but fine furthermore. She stood up slowly and rubbed her painful elbows. _I hope the soldiers haven't seen or heard us…  
_  
"Damn that hurts…. " Lok said while he stood up. "Sorry Zhalia, I'm such a-"

"Hush!" Zhalia urged him to be silent, and pulled him behind a big rock formation, out of the sight of the soldiers who were sitting a few hundred meters away. Carefully she glanced towards them, and 'till her great horror she saw three of them running into their direction, their swords at the ready. _Dammit they've seen us… what should we do now?_

"Zhalia! Lok!"  
Dante and Vern had descended the wall unnoticed.

"Dante, Vern, go back!" Zhalia said. "They haven't seen you yet!"

Dante looked at her with an upset glance. "No way! We're not going to leave you here!"

"You have to, if we flee they'll chase after us and no doubt they're going to capture us all. You have to back to the Upperworld with Sophie and tell everybody about Rassinov's plan!"

"But…"

"Don't worry about us, I have a plan and-"

Before she could finish her sentence, Dante kissed her. First Zhalia was overwhelmed with amazement, but then she pulled him even closer and started kissing him back. The moment seemed to last an eternity and Zhalia didn't wanted it to ever end.

"Guys this is not really the right time!" Lok yelled, making Dante and Zhalia let go of each other, a bit embarrassed.

"Come Dante, we've got to go now." Vern said.

"But-"

"Go!" Zhalia and Lok said in unison, and Dante and Vern climbed up again.

Once they had reached the top, Dante looked over his shoulder one last time, and his eyes met Zhalia's.  
"It's going to be alright…" She whispered, hoping that Dante would understand it, and he probably did because he smiled sadly, before disappearing behind the wall.

"What now?" Lok asked, and he looked to Zhalia with a slightly desperate glance.

"I think I have an idea…. Follow me." Zhalia said, and she left their hiding place.

"What are you doing? Are you insane?"

"Of course not, just trust me." Zhalia said, and she walked towards the soldiers, with Lok on her heels.

"Good morning, I'm Queen Zhalia from Snowland, lord Rassinov has invited me."  
_I hope this is going to work…_

At first the soldiers frowned suspiciously, but when they noticed her tiara and beautiful clothes, they calmed down a bit.  
"Sorry your highness, we didn't know Lord Rassinov was expecting a visitor… " One of the soldiers said.

"And who's that?" The other asked, and he pointed to Lok.

"This is my bodyguard." Zhalia said. "I can't travel without a bodyguard right?"

The soldiers nodded. That sounded logical.  
"Follow us, we'll bring you to Lord Rassinov."

_**Inside the castle**___

**Rassinov**

Rassinov was sitting in his library, trying to focus on a good book, when all of the sudden somebody knocked on the door.  
He sighted. "What?"

"You've got a visitor my Lord." The voice of one of his minions said.

"I've got no time for visitors."

"It's Queen Zhalia my Lord."

Rassinov immediately stood up and followed his minion to the hall. There she was, even more beautiful than he remembered in the soft candlelight of the chandeliers.

"Zhalia." He said, while descending the stairway. "I see you've accepted my invitation after all?"

Zhalia bit on her lower lip, she had totally forgotten about that invitation… but it was the perfect excuse for being here.  
"Yes." She said, and put on a fake smile. "I've changed my mind, I'd love to have dinner with you."

Rassinov smiled. "How nice…. And who's that?" He glanced towards Lok suspiciously.

"This is my bodyguard."

"But that's just a teen, and he doesn't even looks strong…"

"He's a lot older and stronger than he looks, and he's an amazing seeker with incredible power."

Lok tried hard not to laugh. When he saw Rassinov's wondering and highly suspicious glance he quickly looked to the ground.

"Hmm… well he can go the employees department in the basement, to have some dinner and rest a bit, he must be tired from the trip right?"

"Well yes, I am a bit tired… but shouldn't I stay with the Queen to protect her?" Lok asked, more to Zhalia than to Rassinov.

"Nonsense she doesn't needs protection here." Rassinov said.

Zhalia doubted, she didn't want to be alone with Rassinov, but otherwise he may would become suspicious. "I guess I don't…. it's okay Lok, you can go, I'll be fine."

"Follow me." Rassinov's minion said to Lok, and doubtfully Lok followed him into another hall. It didn't felt right to split up, let alone to leave Zhalia with that creep.

Rassinov watched Lok and his minion leaving and turned himself to Zhalia. He noticed she had weird scratches on her arms and legs. "How did that happened?" He asked.  
Zhalia immediately knew what he meant and shrugged. "Oh it's nothing, I fell of my horse." She said. "Let's go have dinner."

Rassinov smiled. "Follow me my dear."  
_This day just couldn't be more perfect! _He thought, but he hadn't forgotten what Scarlet had told him this morning _'…a few days ago I had four visitors; Dante Vale, Queen Zhalia and 2 teens…' _The fact that Zhalia was here now, despite the letter the letter he had received, with a teen- bodyguard, was a bit suspicious…

_**Outside the castle**___

Dante

"I can't believe you've left them there!" Sophie said.

The night had fallen over the Underworld. It was almost completely dark, and it started to get cold.  
Dante, Vern, Sophie and Delphine were standing at the foot of the crater, not knowing what to do next.

"We had no choice, the soldiers had already seen them." Vern said. "The best way to help them now is to go back the Upperworld warn those counsel- people, right Dante?"

"Huh what?"  
Dante hadn't paid much attention to the discussion, his mind was with Zhalia. Her kiss still lingered on his lips and he had to gather all his self- control not to climb up and down the wall again, and get her back, no matter how many soldiers there were.

"You and Sophie should go to the counsel as soon as possible, not?" Vern asked to him again.

"Yeah I guess, but I have no idea how… even if we find a ship the journey would take way to long."

"We don't have to travel by ship, I can bring us." Sophie said.

Everybody looked at her confusedly.  
"What are you talking about?" Delphine asked.

Sophie smiled. "One of my powers is teleportation."

Dante was speechless.  
"But- but why haven't you said that before? We could have just-"

"No we couldn't, I can only teleport to places I've been before. I have to picture the place you see."

"That's amazing!" Delphine said. "You two can teleport to the counsel, and then… I don't know, gather an army or something like that, to attack Rassinov before he attacks."

"That's not a bad idea, a surprise attack." Dante said.

"All right, the moment we rebels have been waiting for!" Vern said enthusiastically. "Delphine and I will return to the camp, and gather our own little army. I'm sure everybody wants to help."

"Deal." Dante said. "We'll see each other again here, on this exact spot in about … three days."

Delphine and Vern nodded.

"Take my hand Dante." Sophie said.

Dante grabbed her hand and Sophie took a deep breath.

"Wait a second… Have you done this before?" Dante asked a bit nervously.  
It was not that he didn't have faith in Sophie's skills, but still the idea of teleportation made him feel a bit uncomfortable.

"A few times." Sophie answered. "And with other persons… well, elves actually, not really persons, and never such a long distance…"

Before Dante could react on that somehow a bit disturbing remark, they were surrounded by a twirling green light and pink rose petals. There was a bright flash and all of the sudden Dante felt like moving with 500 km per hour through a way too narrow tube. He felt a bad headache coming, and prayed it would be over soon.  
His prayers were answered and he felt gravity return, pulling him down to the ground. Not very softly he landed on a hard cold surface.  
He opened his eyes and stared to the whirling dark blue night- sky._ Damn I've never felt so dizzy in all of my life…_  
Suddenly he heard the muttering sound of several vaguely familiar voices, and he quickly stood up.

"Mr. Vale? What on earth is happening?" Sir Metz asked amazed.

The room had finally stopped whirling and Dante realized he and Sophie were now standing in the glass office of the (looking highly astonished) counsel.

"We're back." Dante said.

**-  
Is it just me our did this chap make no sense whatsoever?  
I guess after reading this you mustn't think too rationally xD It's a fantasy story after all xD**

Seriously did this chap sucked? I hope not… but it's possible… please let me know by pushing the beautiful, tempting Review- button! ;-)

ps: I've got bad news for you and me (more for me I think) next two weeks are the first SE- weeks (school exams, nooooo) so my updating- tempo may decrease a bit… 


	17. Chapter 16: The black heart

**H16: The black heart**

_**At Rassinov's dining room**_

**Zhalia******

_This just couldn't be worse… _Zhalia thought nervously. She was sitting behind Rassinov's dining table, with Rassinov in front of her and Queen Scarlet on left side of the table. _Why is she here anyway? Talking about bad timing!  
_Zhalia hadn't forgotten Scarlet had tried to kill her, and judged by her vicious, hatred glance she would probably try it again, if Rassinov hadn't been there. Zhalia tried her best to ignore her, and concentrated on the food. It was really delicious, though very different from the food in Snowland (which was all cold). Rassinov sure knew how to welcome a guest.

_What am I going to do now? I have to get out of here and help the others with the attack!_ Zhalia tried to think up a brilliant escape- plan, a reason to leave this damned castle. _Why don't I just go? I mean, he asked me to have dinner with him, and we have had diner… now I have important Queen- things to do…. Yes, that sounds good.  
_  
When everybody had finished his or her diner, Zhalia stood up.  
"Well, Thanks for your invitation Lord Rassinov, diner was delicious, but I'm afraid I have to go now."

Rassinov smiled but his eyes remained cold and expressionless. "Nonsense, you've just arrived. I insist you spend the night here."

_Oh dammit…_

"No, I really shouldn't, you already have a guest." Zhalia said, and she glanced to Scarlet, whose eyes were now almost burning from jealousy and hate.

"This castle is big enough for two guests."

"But I have important Queen- things to do, my country needs me." She said, and walked towards the door. She tried to open it, but failed. It was closed, of course.

"I insist you stay here, I would be bad host if I'd let you go." Rassinov said darkly, and put his hand on her shoulder.

Zhalia shivered, and she shook his hand off. _A good host doesn't lock his guests! _She thought, but she didn't say it. It was quite obvious Rassinov wasn't going to let her go, not now and not tomorrow. But it was now probably the best to just pretend that she was stupid, pretend that she thought he was just being nice and polite, and was going to let her go tomorrow morning.  
"All right then, you're right, it's a bit pity for my long journey if I stay here so such a short time." She said, and tried to smile sweetly. "Where's my room?"

_**At the castle dungeon**_

**Lok**

"Unbelievable…" Lok muttered. He couldn't believe this had happened to him again.

Frustrated Lok walked circles in his three by three meters big prison. It all felt like a big déjà- vu, except that Sophie and Cherit weren't with him now. _Why haven't I seen this coming? _He should have known Lord Rassinov was just as low as Queen Scarlet.

He hammered with his fists on the door. "Let me out!" He yelled, but nobody answered.

"Touchram! Dragonfist!" He tried to break the door with all his force, but after a few minutes he gave up. That door almost seemed to be made of unbreakable stone instead of wood.  
_Well at least it doesn't fires my spell back like Scarlet's doors…. _Lok thought, and he sighted. Tired out he sat down, with his back against the wall and his head on his hands. A familiar feeling of panic pounded in his head, and he tried to calm down. _Come on Lok, what would Dante do?... Probably think of Zhalia… I hope she's okay…  
_Lok doubted about that. If Rassinov found him suspicious enough to imprison, he would probably do the same with Zhalia, or worse.  
Something bad was going on, he could feel it.  
_Please Dante, Sophie, hurry up with whatever you're doing!_

_**At one of Rassinov's guest rooms**_

**Zhalia**

One of Rassinov's minions had brought Zhalia to her room.  
"Enjoy your stay." He said, and closed the door behind him, leaving Zhalia alone. She heard the sound of a key locking the door.

Zhalia sighted, and examined the room. It was quite big and made of the same boring dark- grey stones as the rest of the castle, but livened up with a big golden four- poster bed, silk red sheets, matching curtains, a big mirror with a golden frame, and golden- red tapestries on the flour. She had to admit the room was really beautiful.

_Maybe I can escape through the window! _She thought, and she walked towards it. But the window was very small, she doubted whether she could fit through it. And even if she could, she still had to think up a solution for the fact her room in the top of a tower, dozens of meters above the ground.

_I'm really stuck here…. _Zhalia thought, and she sat down on the bed sadly. She knew she should probably go to sleep but she couldn't. _How can sleep when I don't know if Lok's okay? When I don't know what Rassinov's planning to do with me? When that crazy bitch Scarlet is here and I don't know why…  
_All these questions were driving Zhalia crazy, she couldn't stand being so helpless and ignorant. And to make it even worse, she was missing Dante. So much that it almost hurt. But at least she knew he was safe, for now…

_**At Rassinov's library**_

**Rassinov**

No matter how much he wanted to believe Zhalia was here because she wanted to marry him to, he couldn't. The letter, the evasive glance in her eyes, the poor excuses to leave…. It was all clear. _But then why ís she here?_

Maybe she was here to spy…. maybe she knew about his plans… maybe more people knew… maybe Dante Vale (_Once I've conquered Wereld he'll be one the first I'll kill) _knew. The thought of that was disturbing, but not too much, who could stop him now?

Rassinov decided to stick the old plan: conquer whole Wereld and marry Zhalia. And she was going to do that entirely voluntarily (though if you looked at it from a different point of you would say involuntarily). Anyway, she was going to love him, whether she wanted it or not.  
Rassinov walked towards one of the many bookcases in his library. He took a thick red book out of one of the top shells, and dropped it on the floor. The little heart wooden case hidden behind it was what he really had been looking for.  
He opened the case, and carefully took a silver necklace out of it. It was extremely valuable, made of pure silver and with a big black heart- shaped diamond at the end. It was his family's most powerful magical relic, and the key to Zhalia's heart.

_**At one of Rassinov's guest rooms **_

**Scarlet**

Scarlet was furious. That bitch was stealing hér future husband, this was not how it was planned. The plan was: conquer Wereld together with Rassinov and marry him.  
_But now that %$#&I Queen Zhalia is here… _Suddenly she understood why she and those other three had visited her palace, they had been there to kill her!  
_Yes, Zhalia wanted to kill me, so that she would have my Rassinov for herself! But she has underestimated me… There's no way I'm going to let her win again, Rassinov will be mine!_  
A new plan occurred in Scarlet's head: kill Zhalia, make Rassinov forget about her, and then marry him.  
_But how the hell am I going to do that? _Wondering about that question Scarlet fell asleep.

_**At Nubes**_

**Dante**_****_

Sophie and Dante explained everything to the counsel. When they were finished, a deep silence fell.  
"Are you sure about this?" Lady Invidia asked.

Dante felt he was starting to lose his patience. "Of course we're sure, we've seen it with our own eyes. Rassinov has gathered an army bigger than you've ever seen before, he wants to attack the upper world and conquer the whole world!" Dante said. "You have to do something, and quick, Zhalia and Lok are still there!"

"Easy Dante." Sir Metz walked towards him. "I understand your impatience, we'll send all kingdom's a magical letter with the request to send an army towards the Underworld within three days. Everybody agrees with that?"

"Normally I don't approve violence, but this is an exception." Astrum said, and Lady Mare and Sir Letum nodded.

Lady Invidia smiled bleakly. "Very well than, though I'm not sure whether we will be able to win this war, we must not underestimate the power of Lord Rassinov."

"Not so pessimistic Lady Invidia, it will be a surprise attack in our advantage." Sir Metz said.

"All kingdoms have to respond to our request, even King Earl's, otherwise it will be a lost cause."

"I'm sure all kingdoms will react, even the great King Earl." Sir George said. "At least, if you bring him a normal letter, not a magical one."

Lady Invidia snorted. "I highly doubt about that…"

"Sir George is right; somebody should bring the letter to King Earl's kingdom…. Dante and Sophie, would you want to do that?" Sir Metz asked. "After all you two are the one who have actually seen Rassinov's army, if anybody can persuade him, it will be you."

"We'll do anything to help." Sophie said, and Dante nodded.  
_We're coming Zhalia, hold on!_

_**At one of Rassinov's guest rooms**_

**Rassinov**

Rassinov took a quite big metal key out of the pocket of his long black and red attire. It wasn't a normal key, this key fit on every door in the castle, and he kept it with him all the time.  
He opened the door of Zhalia's room. He had waited a few hours to make sure she was asleep. At least, he hoped she was asleep. **  
**Silently he entered. The curtains were still opened, and moonlight fell through the window, so the room wasn't completely dark. Zhalia was lying peacefully at the foot of the bed, on the sheets. She was sleeping, with her long dark- blue hair fanned out on the bed. It looked like she had tried to stay awake but fell asleep anyway.

Her beauty struck Rassinov, as always, and he pictured her wearing a long black dress, sexy and sophisticated, obscure and impressive. _Yes… she will be a perfect queen of darkness, way better than Scarlet. _  
He walked towards the bed and he caressed her cheek lightly, before he carefully put the necklace around her neck. When the diamond touched her skin it glowed up black for a brief second. Rassinov smiled, it had worked. Tomorrow morning Zhalia would beg him to marry her.

**-  
Sorry for such a late update, but next to school, work, and social life, there was little time for writing. I hope you liked this chap… o yeah, and please review! Nothing gives better inspiration than sweet and/ or helpful reviews ;-)**


	18. Chapter 17: Forever yours?

**H17: Forever yours?**

_**At Rassinov's castle**_

**Zhalia**

Zhalia awaked from the reddish sunlight that fell through the window. Her head and chest felt weird and heavy. She rubbed her temples, and tried to remember where she was, and how she got here in the first place, but failed. A bit rickety she stood up, and looked around. The red and golden room seemed somehow familiar.  
She walked towards the big mirror at the wall and stared at her own reflection. It seemed familiar as well; the light tanned skin, blue hair… but at the same time it wasn't familiar at all.  
_Zhalia… I'm Zhalia… _She remembered her name, but nothing furthermore except Rassinov.  
_Rassinov… _That name was all there was. There was no past and no future, just the present, and that present was Rassinov. She pictured his beautiful face, his dark hair, his deep voice with that sexy accent…. A warm, tickling feeling spread through her body. Suddenly everything became clear to her.  
_Oh my god, I have to see him, now!  
_Zhalia made a beeline for the door. I didn't surprise her that it was open. Quickly she walked through the alley, and ran down the winding stairs as fast as she could. It made her dizzy, but she didn't care. Neither did she pay attention to the heavy necklace around her neck. Rassinov was the only thing that mattered.  
**  
Rassinov**

Rassinov was standing in the big main hall of the castle. He was impatiently waiting for Zhalia to appear; he wanted to know whether the cursed ancient necklace had done its work. Not that he thought it had failed, that was just impossible. None of his plans or spells had ever failed.

Rassinov remembered the story of the necklace: It had been the lucky charm of a woman named Sirenez, who lived 333 years ago. She was a gypsy who travelled through the underworld with her family, giving dance shows in villages. Rassinov's great- great- great grandfather was back then the Lord of a little kingdom, with a castle on top of a hill. One day the gypsy's came to the little village downhill. Accidentally the formerly Lord Rassinov was there as well, and he fell in love with the beautiful Sirenez. And she fell in love with him to. Just a few months later they married, and Lord Rassinov couldn't be happier. He thought they would live happily ever after.  
But one morning, when he woke up, she was gone, together with all of his gold and jewelry. All that she had left behind was her necklace, and a little note that said:_ I'm sorry, but I'm a gypsy, my heart is free and goes wherever the wind blows. _  
His heart was broken, and he locked himself up in his room for 9 days and 9 nights. The villagers who lived downhill saw weird lights flashing behind his windows, and said there was dark magic going on. And they were right. Lord Rassinov had used all of his magic to curse the necklace so that anyone who'd wear it would fall deeply in love with the one who can call himself Lord Rassinov. The necklace would erase all free will, every memory, everything and everyone the victim had ever loved, so that Sirrenez would never leave him again.  
Lord Rassinov waited for 10 years, until she and her family finally appeared in the village again. He had already thought up a plan how to give her the necklace without her seeing him.  
Sirenez was very surprised when she saw her old necklace lying in the mud, in the middle of the village square. She assumed she had lost it there the last time she had been in the village, and picked it up. She had forgotten about Lord Rassinov completely. She put the necklace on, and that was the last time her family had ever seen her.  
She had gone back to Lord Rassinov, who thought his life would now finally be complete again. But it wasn't. He soon found out that Sirenez wasn't the same any more. Yes, she did everything he told her to, and worshipped him every second of the day, but there was no life in her any more, no personality. The woman he had fallen in love with had trifled away. She was nothing more than a memory, a ghost. Lord Rassinov was deeply unhappy, and knew she was to. In a fit of desperation he jumped of the highest tower of the castle, together with Sirenez, in the hope they would be truly together indeed in death.

Rassinov snorted. He didn't believed in fairytales, and highly doubted whether the necklace- story was true. He didn't care anyway, as long as the necklace did its work.  
Just when he wanted to go upstairs and wake Zhalia up himself, he saw her standing at the top of the staircase. Just one look on her face and Rassinov knew the necklace had done its work properly.  
Within less than a second she stood right in front of him, and pressed her lips against his. He gently pushed her away; he had never liked that kind of physical contact, and he looked her in the eyes. They were filled with darkness and therefore more beautiful than ever. Rassinov smiled, as always his plan had worked.

"I've missed you." Zhalia whispered.

Rassinov stroke the hair away from her face. "Finally you're truly mine."

"Forever." She said breathless. "I'm yours forever."

_You certainly will be… _Rassinov thought, and he took her hand.  
"Follow me my future Queen; we're going to find you a dress that fits better with your new position."

_**On the other side of the world**_

**Dante**

Sophie and Dante were walking through the woods, heading for King Earls kingdom, Lok's birthplace.

They had spent the night at Nubes, and next morning they had returned to the ground through the same golden gateway as Dante and Lok had went a few weeks ago. It had been a weird experience for both Dante and Sophie. For Sophie because she had never seen and experienced something like that before, and for Dante because so many things had happened in those past few weeks.  
He had met Zhalia, crossed deserts of ice and sand, faced mountains and swamps. They had almost been killed by giant spiders, Queen Scarlet, pirates and soul- stealing spirits. He had lost his dear friend Montehue, but also met new ones: Delphine and Vern. And he had fallen in love with Zhalia.  
But now she was gone, and he didn't know when he would see her again. But that he would see her again was a fact. There was no way he was going to leave the Underworld without her again.  
But first they had to persuade King Earl to send an army to help them, and Dante had the strong presumption that wasn't going to be easy.

They had been walking in silence for hours now, which was not that weird for Dante, he was a man of few words, but it was for Sophie, who was usually talking the ears off your head.  
Dante glanced towards the girl who was walking next to him. It was hard to tell how she was feeling but he had the strong presumption she was worrying about Lok, and Zhalia. Her lack of speaking amplified his presumption.  
Dante himself was worrying about them to. He couldn't help but blaming himself for what happened. If only he had warned Lok to be careful. _If only…_

Hours of walking and a few breaks later, when the night started to fall, King Earl's kingdom finally came in sight.  
"Sophie, look!"

Sophie seemed to awake from some kind of sleep walking.  
"Oh my god, we're there!" She yelled with a big smile. It was the first time she had smiled in hours, and Dante was happy to see that smile again.

The kingdom was surrounded by a high stone wall. When they reached the big wooden gate, two soldiers approached them immediately.  
"Hé you two, stop!" The left one said. "Who are you and what do you want?"

"My name is Dante Vale and this is Lady Sophia, we have a message from the counsel for King Earl." Dante pulled a big purple envelope, sealed with the golden signature of the counsel, out of his pocket.

The soldier studied the seal. When he couldn't find anything suspicious, he gave the envelope back, and nodded towards the other soldier.  
The other soldier walked back to the gate, and yelled something. At first nothing happened, but then the gate slowly opened, with a loud cracking sound.  
"You have permission to enter the kingdom." The soldier who had checked the letter said. "But there are strict rules: No magic, no contact with the citizens, and not offend or threaten the king in any way. Infringe these rules, and you will be arrested."

Dante and Sophie walked through the gate. The heavy wooden doors closed behind them immediately.  
"Another soldier will guide you to the castle."

**Sophie**

Sophie and Dante followed the soldier that was going to be their guide through the sloping green fields. There were little farms with cows and orchards everywhere, wrapped in the colorful light of the setting sun. It was an idyllic place, and Sophie envied Lok for growing up in such a beautiful and peaceful environment.

Within less than an hour they had reached the town, the kingdom wasn't very big. King Earls castle was in the centre of the town.  
Sophie wasn't surprised the town was just as cute as the countryside. Cozy little houses made of all sorts of materials; narrow bumpy streets; little wooden bridges... Suddenly her eye fell on a little bakery with dark- green frames. _Didn't Lok say his mother owns a bakery?_  
A blond girl of about eighteen years old came out. She wore a brownish dress and her eyes were as blue as the sky. She reminded Sophie a bit of Lok. _Could it be Lok's sister?  
_Sophie stood still hesitatingly, and Dante gave her a questioning look. She moved her head in the direction of the bakery, hoping that Dante would understand what she meant.

Dante glanced towards the blond girl. "No Sophie, we can't talk to them now." He whispered. "We're not allowed to talk to the citizens, and we can't risk being arrested."

Sophie sighted, she knew he was right. They had to bring the letter to King Earl. Besides, if they would tell Lok 's mother and sister he was in the Underworld, somewhere in the castle of the evil Lord Rassinov and in unknown condition, they would probably totally freak out.

"Is something wrong?" The soldier asked to Sophie suspiciously.  
Sophie shook her head, and continued walking. She looked back over her shoulder to Lok's sister one last time. She was tranquilly cleaning the frames, not aware of the war that was soon to come, and not knowing what had happened to her brother.  
Sophie felt bad for restraining this information to her, but they had no choice.

**-  
I guess this was kind of an in- between chap (I hope it wasn't boring). Next chap S and D will talk to king E, and there will be major scarlet- trouble…. **

**I also want to apologize for the late update, but next to the usual time- problems I was also ill the past few days, and it's no easy writing (or actually doing anything) when your head feels like it's going to explode… but no worries, I'm healthy as a horse again now! =D**

**And if you want to make me even healthier; REVIEW!**

Ps: Please don't flame me for the ZxR part xD I will make it up with you guys later on in the story ^^

Pps: I'm not sure whether 'talking the ears off one's head' is an existing phrase in English (it is in Dutch) Anybody knows?


	19. Chapter 18: Betrayal and agreements

**H18: Betrayal and agreements**

_**At Rassinov's castle, 8 hours earlier**_

**Scarlet**

Queen Scarlet had barely slept last night. Plans about how to get rid of Zhalia had been roaming around in her head all night, some even more ridiculous than others. But eventually she got it. The perfect plan. Simple but effective, and the cook would be blamed.

Carefully Scarlet opened the door of the dining room. Breakfast was already served, but neither Rassinov nor Zhalia was there. Scarlet was surprised by her luck. _This just couldn't possibly be more perfect! _  
Scarlet walked towards Zhalia's place, and pulled a little crystal bottle, filled with a clear green fluid, out of her pocket. She poured a little bit of the fluid into Zhalia's with wine filled glass. _Just a few drops is enough… it will make her sick enough to die, but not immediately. _It would look like some kind of severe food poisoning. Scarlet smiled blissfully, once Zhalia was dead, Rassinov would be all hers. _And then we'll marry and get three kids: A boy named Ace, a girl named Bridginna, and another girl named Callista…._

Footsteps broke through Scarlet's wondering, and she quickly sat down. The door opened and Rassinov came in, followed by Zhalia. Scarlet's mouth fell open, she looked completely different. She had dumped the white and blue outfit and was now wearing a long black dress with matching long black hand gloves, and a heavy looking silver necklace with an expensive looking black diamond. _Is that a gift from Rassinov? Why is he giving her jewelry!  
_The dress was strapless and tight, but with a quite big, flared out skirt. The skirt was made of two different materials. One silky black like the rest of the dress, and one lacey black with a hint of blue.  
But it wasn't just her outfit that had changed, it were also her eyes. They seemed to have darkened, even the way she watched was just… different, almost vicious. And when she looked at Rassinov, her eyes filled with pure adoration. Scarlet had always suspected Zhalia from loving Rassinov, but she had never seen her act like this.  
_What the hell is going on here? _Whatever it was, Scarlet didn't like it. She felt locked out, like something important had happened and everyone was keeping her in ignorance.  
She looked at Rassinov. "Have I missed something?" She asked, and she squeezed her eyes suspiciously.

Rassinov stared at her for a few seconds. He seemed to doubt about something. Eventually he sat down, took a sip from his glass, and answered Scarlet's question. "Zhalia is my fiancé now." He said. "The wedding will be in two days, after the ceremony we'll start our march to the Upper World."

Scarlet's mouth fell open. She was stunned. Horrified. She could barely believe it; Zhalia had seduced Lord Rassinov behind her back! _That bitch has always been one step ahead of me…._  
But there was still hope, it wasn't too late. Zhalia would drink the poisoned wine and die. Scarlet glanced towards Zhalia's glass for a quick second. It looked normal but Scarlet knew it wasn't, and she smiled lightly for a brief second. When she looked back to Rassinov her heart skipped a beat. He was staring at her with a disturbingly suspicious glance._ Does he know? _

"Scarlet, I want Zhalia to sit in front of me, could you switch places with her?" Rassinov said, and Scarlet knew he knew what she had done. He knew everything.  
His eyes were cold and merciless, and she suddenly realized he didn't care about her at all, he never had. He would kill her without any hesitation. Scarlet bit on her lip and repressed her upwelling tears. A voice in her head screamed: _Get the hell out of here!  
_She stood up. "She can sit on my place. But I'm going. And I take my sand- warriors with me. It's all or nothing Rassinov." She said, leaving the 'Lord' part away deliberately.

He smiled and stood up as well. "Yes, it's all or nothing indeed dear Scarlet. And since you've betrayed me by this-" He glanced towards the glass. "- pathetic attempt to kill my soon to be wife, it's going to be all for me, and nothing for you."

Scarlet hissed furiously. "Your army won't be big enough without mine! And if you choose her-" Scarlet glanced towards Zhalia, who was looking at the whole scene without any interest at all. "- over me, I'll go, and I'll take my warriors with me."

Rassinov snickered. "But your army has arrived this morning, and you've told them yourself they have to follow every order I give them. So what do I need you for?"

His words stung like burning needles, and again Scarlet had to bring in all her self- control not to burst into tears. Suddenly she heard the sound of a door opening, and she quickly turned around. Six of Rassinov's guards had entered the room.

"No, you aren't going anywhere Scarlet…." Rassinov whispered darkly.

_**At King Earl's kingdom, about 8 hours later**_

**Dante**  
  
Dante wasn't nervous to meet king Earl. But he was kind of nervous he would refuse to help them. Dante knew he probably had to pull out all the stops to convince him that he wouldn't only be helping them, but also himself.  
  
Dante, Sophie and their guide had entered King Earl's castle, and followed two of his guards to the throne hall. The castle was sober and simply build, but charming. It was just like one of those age- old castles you saw in children's books.   
__  
They climbed the three big stone steps, and walked through the stone corridor, entering the throne hall. King Earls was sitting on a stone throne in front of big stained glass windows. The windows portrayed the glowing green hills of the kingdom, under the golden yellow rising sun. It was probably very beautiful when sun fell through it, but the sun had already set and the room was wrapped in dusky twilight.

King Earl himself was a man in his late forties. He had pepper and salt blond/ grey hair, and a royal- looking beard and long velour dark- green cloak. Dante immediately didn't like him, but he was prejudiced. King Earl had a bad name among seekers for his strict anti- magic policy.  
Reluctantly Dante kneeled politely. Sophie did the same.

"Guards! Who are these two people?" The king asked, and Dante and Sophie stood up.

"Dante Vale and Sophia Casterwell, your Highness." One of the guards said. "They have an urgent message for you."

"It better be a very important one then, magical scum is not allowed in my kingdom…."

Dante resisted the urge to teach King Earl a lesson in manners and morals.  
"Don't worry we have." Dante said, and for the second time that day he pulled the purple envelope out of his pocket. "It's a message from the counsel."

The king frowned, and Dante handed him the envelope. King Earl broke the seal and read the letter. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully, and stood up.  
"Is this true? Is lord Rassinov breaking the pact? Is he gathering an army to conquer whole Wereld?"

"We've seen it ourselves." Sophie said.

King Earl remained silent for a few seconds. "This could be a trap. If I send my soldiers to the Underworld the kingdom is unprotected against-"

"- against who?" Dante said irritated. "The only threat is Lord Rassinov!"

"That's exactly what you, a seeker, would say!"

Sophie stepped in, trying to soothe the situation. "Please King Earl, I know this is an unexpected message, but the counsel would never try to trick you."

Her words sounded heartfelt, and Dante noticed King Earl seemed to find Sophie more reliable than him. Probably because she was a girl and looked so kind and innocent. Thought he didn't like it, he realized it was probably better to let Sophie do the talking.

"Hmmm, maybe you're right… the counsel has always proven to be neutral and substantial..." King Earl said. "But even if Lord Rassinov is going to attack, it's better if my soldiers stay here and prepare to defend the kingdom."

"With all due respect, you can't defend yourself against Rassinov. You, and we all, only have a chance if we attack together before he does." Sophie said.

King Earl remained silent again. Dante could see he was doubting.  
"I suppose I could send half of my soldiers… and keep the other half here to be sure…."

"No you have to send them all." Sophie said, a bit pleading. "All kingdoms send all of their soldiers-" This wasn't entirely true, Dante hoped they would, but if they were as cautiously as King earl they probably wouldn't. "- we need all the help we can get. Especially from an army as well- armed and well- trained as yours."

Her flattering wasn't very subtle, but it was working.  
"So… a surprise attack?"

Sophie nodded.

"With the whole Upperworld?"

Sophie nodded again.

"Ok then. I'll send my whole army, if you can solve this last problem for me." King Earl said. "The letter says we have to gather together in the Underworld the day after tomorrow, but my soldiers have to prepare first, my army isn't ready. And besides that, the journey would take days and days. We don't have, and don't want, any way of fast magical transportation."

Sophie thought about this for a moment. "Well… if you can get your army ready in two days, I'll bring us all to the Underworld in less than a second."

Dante frowned, just like all the other people in the room.  
"Sophie, are you sure you can teleport _that _many people?" Dante asked silently.

"Well… I hope I can, if I practice a lot."

King Earl cleared his throat. "I demand an explanation!"

Sophie turned herself to the king again. "I'm sorry your Highness. The truth is; I'm the cervix of nature, and teleportation is one of my powers."

"You want to bring my army to the Underworld with _magic_?" He said the word with the highest possible amount of contempt.

"Well… yes, I'd rather not do it, it's going to be extremely difficult and tiring for me, but we have no other choice."

King Earl stared at Sophie critically. He seemed to highly doubt that a tender sixteen year old girl could teleport his entire army to the other side of the world. Dante was kind of uncertain about that too.

"Counselor, come here!" The King yelled.

A man with long black hair and a mustache appeared a dark corner of the room. Dante was surprised he hadn't noticed him before.

"Counselor, what do think?" The King asked.

Dante studied the counselor's face, but couldn't see any expression that gave away what he was going to advice.

"Unfortunately…." The counselor said. "My advice is to make an agreement with the girl and the seeker. If she can do what she says she can, we have to try it. For the sake of the Kingdom."

The King nodded, and Sophie and Dante exhaled relieved.  
"Very well then." The King said. "I'll order my general to prepare the soldiers for battle. He'll make sure my army is ready within two days. You two can go now, but stay between the walls of the castle. The guards will keep an eye on you. "He said, more to Dante than to Sophie.

The two nodded, and left the throne hall. Dante could barely hide his smile. _Unbelievable, Sophie did it! She has persuaded King Earl!  
_But he hoped she hadn't used up all of her luck, because she had only two days to prepare herself for teleporting a few hundred soldiers.

_**At Rassinov's castle, about 8 hours earlier**_

**Scarlet**

Anger filled her heart and her mind, fire was burning behind her eyes and in her hands. The six soldiers quickly pulled out their black flamed swords.  
"One step closer and you're going to regret it." Scarlet yelled to them.

"Don't be silly Scarlet." Rassinov said. "I've mentally ordered them to bring you to a prison cell. If you go with them without resisting, they won't hurt you… for now."

"If you think I'm going to surrender without a fight, you're the one who's _silly_!_" _Scarlet screamed furiously, and she fired a beam of fire towards the soldiers. Two of them managed to evade the attack, but four of them were too late, and were blown into the wall.  
One of the remaining soldiers raised his sword to stab Scarlet, but she grabbed the blade with her flaming hands without any trouble, and broke it in two, before turning the soldier into a smoldering pile of ash.  
She turned herself towards the last soldier, but he fled before she could do anything. She smiled triumphantly. Nobody attacked Queen Scarlet without consequences.  
_Rassinov! _She realized she had turned her back to him, but it was already too late. Before she could turn around she was surrounded with pitch- black darkness. It felt like all her senses were shut down. She couldn't see or hear anything, couldn't speak, she even couldn't move. The weight of the darkness became heavier and heavier, until the pressure on her head became too much, and she lost consciousness.

**Rassinov**

Rassinov looked at the unconscious Scarlet lying on the floor. _She has had her fun with my soldiers, but now it was enough. _He had used one of his dark powers on her, until she fainted. It hadn't cost him more energy than walking down the stairs.

_"Guard! Come back here now!" _  
One of his other powers was talking to others with his thoughts, a power he often used to give orders to his minions.

The guard who had fled for Scarlet a few minutes ago entered the room again, and kneeled.  
"I'm sorry I fled my Lord."

Rassinov snorted. "You should be punished for your cowardness. But I'm in a good mood. Bring Scarlet to a prison cell immediately, and I'll forgive you."

"Thank you my Lord. You're too kind." The guard said relieved. He picked Scarlet up, and left the room.

_"Don't forget to make sure she doesn't escapes!"_  
Rassinov wasn't sure what to do with Scarlet. He had what he needed from her; her soldiers, so he could just kill her. But a voice in his head said she might still be useful for him. After all, she was the fire cervix, maybe there was a way to steal her powers or something like that.

"Zhalia, come here."

Zhalia walked towards him. "Yes my love."

"What do think I should do with Scarlet?"

"I don't care. All I care about is you."

Rassinov sighted. He could have known that asking her for her opinion was useless now. But that didn't matter, he didn't want a wife with an opinion. He wanted a wife who was beautiful and obedient. And thanks to the cursed necklace, he would have such a wife. _Just two more days… two days and I'll have my perfect wife, and then; whole Wereld…. _

-  
**Aawww poor Scarlet, I'm almost feeling sorry for her... Almost.  
So, we're kind of heading towards the end of the story, but I've got not a clue how many chapters it's going to take, since I'm not quite sure how it's going to end…**

Reviews are very very welcome! ^^

jenn; thanx for answering the question :) Too bad it isn't an existing phrase in English, it's a nice one I think.  
And yes, the title is Dutch as well. I kind of had no inspiration for a name for this 'world' so I named it Wereld, which is the Dutch word for world xD (jeah pretty lame, I know….) And since I also had no inspiration for a title, I just used that name again xD  
  
_  
_


	20. Chapter 19: Waiting for dusk

**H19: Waiting for dusk**

_**At King Earl's Kingdom**_

**Dante**

Dante looked how Sophie practiced her teleportation in the stone courtyard. He was leaning against the wall and let the sun warm his face. Sophie had been busy practicing for hours now, and Dante started to feel utterly bored. He felt completely useless. There was nothing to do for him but wait until tomorrow. They would leave at sunset.

"Oh I really need more people!" Sophie yelled frustrated. The King had 'given' her six nervous maids to practice with. But now she had successfully teleported all six of them to almost every place in the castle, Sophie needed a bigger challenge.

The soldier who Kind Earl had established to keep an eye on them nodded. "I'll ask the King."

A few minutes later he returned. He told Sophie she could go to the fields behind the castle with fifty solders.  
"But _you_ have to stay inside the castle." He said to Dante.

Dante sighted. King Earl obviously didn't trust him at all.

"I'll be back before dinner Dante." Sophie said, and she left him alone in the courtyard.

Dante sat down on the ground. _What am I supposed to do now? _He stared to the shadow of the big tree in the middle of the courtyard. He stared and stared, until the entangled shapes of the branches reformed into the shape of Zhalia. He wanted her to be here with him so badly it hurt. He longed to hear her soft velvet voice, to look in her gold- brown eyes, to stroke her warm skin, to tell her how much he cared about her…. But she was as far removed from him as possible. And to make it even worse she was in the company of the treacherous enemy they were going attack tomorrow.  
Dante growled. He needed some kind of distraction or he would go insane.

"Mr. Vale, how are you doing?"

Dante looked up and saw a man who he recognized as King Earl's counselor.

"I'm fine, thanks."

"I just realized I haven't introduced myself properly." The counselor said. "My name is Craigh Hayes."

Dante nodded. "I'm Dante Vale, nice to meet you."

"You look troubled my friend… I myself am feeling the same way." He stared to the wall absently. "I don't really feel like going to war either, leaving the woman I love behind without protection…. Cathy…"

Dante stood up. "You'll be fighting for her sake as well…. But you could always stay behind if you really want to." He said, keeping away the fact he wasn't looking troubled because he didn't want to go, rather because wanted to go so badly

The counselor smiled a little bitter laugh. "That would be high treason, and the King would never accept that. " He said. "And besides, I'm not only the counselor, I'm also the general of the first division of the army. My men need me. "  
He looked at Dante with a bit of a calculating glance in his grey eyes. "I'm wondering…. Can you fight without magic?"

"Of course."

"Then I challenge you." He said, and threw a sword to Dante. There was a little decorated E engraved in the blade, meaning that the sword was made of Earl- metal; the strongest metal in the world. King Earls' kingdom was the only place where they knew how to make it.  
"Nothing wrong with a little training huh?"

Dante smiled. He was starting to like this Craigh. He seemed like a fair and honest man. Dante hadn't forgotten he was the one who had advised the King to listen to them.  
"Bring it on." Dante said.

_**At the dungeon of Rassinov's castle, on that moment**_

**Lok**

"I really wouldn't know what to do without you Sasha… you're such a great listener, I've got the feeling I can tell you everything." Lok said. "You know what, even though you're a mouse; I hereby appoint you as my new best friend!"

Sasha sniffed a grain of sand and didn't seem to listen at all.

Lok sighted. "I miss Sophie. Too bad she isn't here Sasha, I'm sure you two would become great friends. She's so beautiful… and sweet and smart and funny….. Maybe it's weird because I'm only sixteen, but I think I love her Sasha."

Sasha came to the conclusion the grain of sand wasn't eatable, and ran towards the little hole in the wall.

"Sasha? Where are you going?" Lok asked, and Sasha disappeared in the wall.  
"No Sasha! Come back! Don't be jealous of Sophie! I'm sorry! I like you to!" He yelled, but Sasha didn't come back.

"Ok… it doesn't matter Sasha… I'll wait for you…."  
Lok sighted again. He felt miserable and alone.

"Good god, stop talking to the wall you freak!" Lok startled when he suddenly heard a voice.

"Hello? Is anybody there?" He asked nervously.

"Of course there's somebody here… did you really think you're all alone in this dungeon?" The voice yelled. Lok realized the owner of the voice had to be locked up in the prison next to his. He also realized the voice was a female's, and that it sounded somehow a bit familiar.

"Scarlet?" Lok asked astonished.

"Queen Scarlet for you, useless unworthy scum! Who are you, and how do you know my name?"

"Well… I'm Lok Lambert, remember? You've tried to kill me and my friends some time ago… "

"What? Are you that pathetic blond teenage seeker who escaped from my prison and blew up my bedroom?"

"Hey, that of your room was your own fault!"

"Ooohh you're _so_ lucky we're both locked little boy, otherwise I would have cursed you into a frog, and then smashed you underneath my feet!"

"Stop threatening me, we have to work together and find a way to escape!"

Scarlet laughed. "I'm chained to the wall you idiot! I can't do a thing!"

"What can't you just… melt the chains or something like that?"

Scarlet laughed again. It sounded kind of creepy. "You really are an idiot aren't you? These chains are made of Earl- metal! Lord Rassinov isn't stupid."

Lok sighted disappointedly. For a brief second he had thought they could try to escape together. Though he hated Scarlet, escaping with her help still sounded better than staying here forever.  
"Just great…" He murmured softly, so that Scarlet wouldn't hear him. "I'd rather be alone all alone again than having her in the prison next to me…."

_**At King Earl's kingdom, next day**_

**Dante**

The sun was setting, turning the blue sky in a purplish- orange medley. Dante walked down the stone path to the fields behind the castle with a very nervous Sophie, his new friend Craigh Hayes, the general of the second division; Aadan Ross and the general of the rider division; Foster Price.  
He was carrying the sword he had received from Craigh yesterday, though he, as a seeker, technically didn't really need it. Still it could be very useful in combat.

Dante could already see the soldiers. There were about four thousandth of them, including fifteen hundred riders. There were also about hundred horses laden with food supplies.  
As commonly in Wereld the King wouldn't fight alongside his soldiers. Only when his Kingdom would be attacked the King would fight. But today the King would do hold a speech, to put heart into the soldiers.

There was a deadly silence on the field when the King entered the stone balcony at the back of the castle. "My dear, brave soldiers!" He said. "The time has come to defend our Kingdom against the magical scum!"  
The soldiers howled but Earl exhorted them to silence.  
"But we don't be doing it on our own…We'll get help from other Kingdoms, and even though they are magical, and therefore our enemies, we must join hands to defeat our common enemy…" He said with a grave voice. "And we will not prove to be just as strong as them, we'll be even stronger! Without magic!"  
There was a lot of howling again, and Dante rubbed his temples. He didn't really like the King's speech, but it seemed to be effective. He could see the soldiers grow more confident with every word the King spoke.  
"And now, this special girl over here-" He gestured towards Sophie, whose face was pale as a sheet. "- will bring you all to the dark side of the world."

All eyes were on Sophie.  
"You can do it, I believe in you." Dante said softly, and he put his hand on her shoulder.

She didn't say a thing (she probably couldn't), and walked forward. She stood still in front of the first line of big, in shiny metal armoured soldiers. It made her look even more fragile.

Dante, Craigh, Aaran and Foster joined her. The closer they were to Sophie the bigger the chance that she would be able to teleport them all. That was important, because after this she wouldn't have enough energy left to teleport a second time.

Sophie sat down on the grass cross- legged. She inhaled and exhaled deeply, and it almost felt like the wind was in and ex- haling with her. Strings of green light started twirling around her, becoming increasingly bigger and brighter every second, surrounding the whole field. Pink rose petals appeared and the wind was blowing like a hurricane. Dante had experienced this before but the others looked scared to death, even the generals. Only Craigh seemed to be calm.  
There was a bright flash, and Dante felt the familiar but still uncomfortable feeling of moving with 500 km per hour through a way too narrow tube. He kept his eyes close and waited until he felt gravity return to his body. He opened his eyes and found himself standing on greyish black stone ground of the Underworld.

He looked around, and recognized the place Sophie had brought them to. It was the irregular rocky area behind the mountain- like hills in front of the big marshland that separated the hills from the walls of the crater. It was the almost the exact spot where they had agreed to meet with Delphine, Vern and Cherit.  
Dante looked to Craigh, Aadan and Foster, who were gazing around, completely astonished.  
"Unbelievable… the girl actually did it." Aadan said, somehow disappointed, as if he had lost a bet or something like that.

"Come on, we've got to count how many of our soldiers are here." Craigh said, and the other two nodded.

_Wait a second…. Where's Sophie?_  
"Sophie?" Dante turned around and saw her lying on the ground, unconscious. He walked towards her and checked her heartbeat. She was still alive, but just completely exhausted.

Suddenly Dante heard the scratchy voice of Cherit. "Dante!"  
"Cherit!" Dante said with a smile, and the little white bat- monkey landed on his shoulder.

"What have you been up to the past few days?" Dante asked.

"Oh nothing special… I've helped Delphine and Vern organizing the attack, and I've done some spying on the other side of the wall."

"Heeey Dante!" Delphine and Vern, who just came walking along, said in unison.

"What's up?" Vern said growling, and he gave Dante a friendly slap on the shoulder.

"The better question would be; what's up with Sophie?" Delphine asked.

"Nothing serious, she's just exhausted, she needs a place to rest."

"That can be settled, we've pitched our camp about five hundred meters from here, in that cave over there." Delphine said. "Vern will you bring here there?"

Vern smiled, revealing his unnaturally big and sharp teeth. "On it boss."

Dante noticed Delphine seemed to have disclosed herself as some kind of leader person. Her camouflage colored outfit had been completed with metal greaves and one metal pauldron. She was also carrying a sword in a leather holster.  
Dante decided to ask her about the current state of events.

"Well fortunately it looks like Lord Rassinov doesn't realize we're here. We've done everything we could to keep everybody behind the hills, out of sight of the castle. Cherit has done some spying and it's almost certain Rassinov's army will march to the coast at dusk." Delphine said, and Dante glanced to the sun. It had almost set. The underworld sky had turned from clear orange- red into blurry dark red, meaning the fight could begin any moment.  
"I've discussed with the generals of the forces that have arrived, and the plan is to attack when the gate opens and Rassinov's forces leave. It's the perfect surprise moment, and we can enter Rassinov's 'front yard' through the gate. From there, we can break into the castle, and hopefully kill Rasinov."

Dante nodded slowly. If everything worked out as planned he would be able to enter the castle and find Zhalia and Lok.  
"Which kingdom's have heed the call of the counsel?"

"Quite a lot… some troops of elite seekers from Caput, those are the men and women in long black coats; five divisions from the tower of light, those are the men in golden armour; some warriors from the Northern Imber jungle, those are the people who look like they've never been out of the jungle before, the Southern jungle hasn't reacted by the way…. And let's see…there are also some sorcerer's from the white mountain, those are the people with long white cloaks; four divisions from Snowland, from which two on cute white horses, those are the men in dark-blue fur- lined uniforms…. Boy they're going to get _warm_…." She shook her head. "And six divisions from the riverland, those are the men in lightblue uniforms; two divisions from the centaurs, easily recognizable; King Earl's soldiers of course; and last but most certainly not least, us, the rebellions! All in all about 25% less people than Rassinov, partly because Queen Scarlet's sand- warriors are also joining the paty…. but we still have the advantage."

Dante's head was spinning. It was a lot of information to process all in once. He found it quite disturbing Scarlet was here. He hadn't forgotten about that crazy witch with her fire- powers…. And the fact they were in the minority also didn't really please him. But he was determined he would find Zhalia, no matter what. _Even if I have to fight half of those black armoured- creeps all by myself…_

_**-  
**_**I apologize it took me so long to update, but I've been really busy with school (exams and pws du-du- du- du- duuuu) I'll try my best to update sooner but times goes by way too fast….**

**Hope you enjoyed this chap, and that it wasn't boring… review if you want to make my day! :D  
**


	21. Chapter 20: Lost, found, and lost again

**Prepare for the longest chapter I've ever written :P**

**H20: Lost, found, and lost again**

_**Rassinov's castle**_

**Rassinov**

Lord Rassinov stood in front of the high stained glass windows of the biggest and most beautiful hall in his castle. The windows told the history of the Rassinov family in all the colors of the rainbow. But mostly in black and red; the black of the underworld ground and the powers of darkness, and the red of the sky and spilled blood.  
Today it was Lord Rassinov's turn to make history; today his army would conquer the upper world. His soldiers had just started the march to the beach, under the leadership of his loyal Generals Shauna and Wind. After the wedding Rassinov himself would join them. _And then whole Wereld will be mine…. I'll be the feared dark ruler of the world, generation after generation will pronounce my name with anxiety and respect… _

"Everything is ready for the ceremony my lord." The old high priest said. The priest was wearing a long black cloak and heavy golden pentagram amulet.

"Good, good…" Rassinov said, and he walked towards the altar, which stood on a stone platform a few meters in front of the windows. All ingredients for a traditional underworld- wedding were there; two golden rings, a ritual knife, a big crystal glass filled with wine, and a thick purple book. Purple candles in golden chandeliers were burning everywhere.

The doors at the end of the hall opened, and Rassinov's soon to be wife entered, escorted by two of his guards. She was wearing the most beautiful black wedding gown there was in the underworld. It had a black satin beaded corset body with full lace up back. The gown skirt was made of black lace and black and dark purplish satin. She was also wearing long black lace gloves and the necklace of course. Her shiny hair was pulled up, with a few strands hanging loosely over her cheek.  
Rassinov smiled satisfied, she looked even better than he had hoped. _She is perfect… _

Zhalia was smiling even broader than him, as she walked towards the altar. Her dream was about to come true; marrying Rassinov and be with him forever. She felt like her destiny was going to be fulfilled.  
Rassinov took her hand and helped her up the stone platform.

"Let the ceremony begin." The priest said with a grave voice. Rassinov and Zhalia stood face to face in front of the altar, with in priest standing in between them. The priest grabbed the purple book. Purple was the color of love in the underworld, that's why Zhalia's dress had a hint of purple. Of course Rassinov was wearing something purple as well; a purple vest underneath his long black coat.

The priest opened the book and started mumbling words with a melodious voice. Rassinov sighted inaudible. He was an impatient man and the priest would go on like this for at least half an hour. But it was an essential part of the ceremony so he had no choice but to wait until the priest was finished.

Barely two minutes later a soldier burst into the room. "Lord Rassinov! Lord Rassinov!"  
The priest stopped his monologue as the soldier ran towards the altar and kneeled down.

"What's going on?" Rassinov asked irritated. "It better be very important, or I'll feed you to the crows for interrupting …."

"It- it is important my Lord." The soldier said stuttering. "We're being attacked!"

There was a moment of complete silence as Rassinov brains tried to comprehend the words of the soldier.  
"Who?" He asked with a hoarse voice that was filled with inhibited anger.

"The- the whole upper world, a- all kingdoms have joined hands, they're working together."

"How is this possible?" Rassinov growled furiously, though he already knew the answer. _Dante Vale_….  
Just like he had feared Vale had somehow found out about his plans, and gathered an army. _Damn you Dante Vale!  
_Rassinov's brains worked at top speed. What should he do now?  
"It's not over yet… ' Rassinov whispered. "We have to regroup… General Wind and General Shauna have to make a new plan… we can still beat them. Everybody's here now so once we've defeated them conquering the upper world will be a piece of cake… " Rassinov turned himself to the soldier. "You, tell Shauna and Wind I want a solid defense and attack plan within thirty minutes. Tell them to keep our forces within the outer walls until then. I'll join them after the wedding."

The soldier nodded before he stood up, and left the hall.

"Quick, continue the ceremony!" Rassinov shouted to the high- priest. He wanted the wedding to be over as soon as possible, so that he could crush Dante Vale and that other bold upper world scum like little ants.

**Dante**

"Sophie how are you feeling?" Dante kneeled down next to Sophie, who was lying on some kind of provisional bed. Her eyes were opened so he knew she was awake. She was still pale as a sheet and had dark circles under her eyes.

Sophie moaned and sat up.  
"Okay I guess…" She said. "I'm just so tired… And thirsty."

Dante smiled. "I figured." He gave her a water bottle.

"Dante! Vern! Cherit! Sophie!" Delphine yelled from outside the cave.  
"They've started! Come on!"

Vern, who had been sitting on the ground, sharpening his sword, sprang into action and ran outside. "Save a few for me Delph!"

Sophie stood up as well but Dante pushed her down again. "Where do you think you're going?"

"I'm going to fight! No way I'm going stay behind!"

"The hell you will, you can barely keep your eyes open, you're too weak to fight!"

"But I'm a cervix! It's my duty to protect the world, I want to help! I want to find Lok!" Tears of anger and desperation filled her eyes.

"Sophie if you go now, you'll get yourself killed." Dante said, softer now. "I promise you I'll find Lok and bring him back to you, unharmed."

Sophie wrapped arms around her legs and stared to the wall with sad, frustrated eyes. "Fine…" She mumbled.

"I'll be back before you know." Dante said, but Sophie didn't answer.  
"Come Cherit, I'll need your help."

Dante left the cave and saw that mountainous plain that been crowded with people earlier that day was now almost completely deserted; everybody had gone to the battlefield. Dante climbed the hill as fast as he could. Once he had reached the top he had a perfect overview. The battle was already in full swing. The evening had fall and it was quite dark outside; most certainly no perfect battle condition. Down the hill, in front and behind the walls of the crater, was a chaos of people, metal and flying spells. Dante saw Rassinov's forces were slowly withdrawing towards the castle, which was something he really couldn't use if he wanted to come inside the castle.

_Dammit, I've got to think up a plan and fast... _He stared to the black castle, the place Zhalia and Lok were. Besides the walls of the crater there was another wall protecting the castle, surrounded by a with sharp pointy rocks filled moat, and behind the wall were more of Rassinov's men. Dante realized he would have a hard time trying to enter the well- protected castle.

"So what's the plan Dante?" Cherit's scratchy voice asked.

Dante's eyes explored the battlefield, searching for a weak spot. The fight was centered on the gate, so the flanks were relatively quiet, especially on the left. There was a stone bridge over the moat, but it trying to cross it would equal suicide, so Dante had to find another way to come in.  
_I'll worry about that later; reaching that wall in the first place is my biggest concern now…. _

"Follow me Cherit, I think I've got a plan… Hyperstride!"  
In a flash of blue he ran down the hill, jumped over about twenty men, and grabbed the edge of the wall. He pulled himself up, until he stood on the small top of the wall. Cherit landed on his shoulder.  
Dante ran over the wall, unnoticed by the fighting men below. He had almost reached the place where was planning to descend, when all of the sudden he was hit by some spell. He fell down and landed harshly at the feet of one of Rassinov's soldiers. The soldier smiled, and raised his sword to finish him, but got distracted when Cherit threw a small piece of rock against his helmet. Dante quickly pulled a dagger out of his booth, and plunged it into the soldier's foot. He screamed in pain, and swung his sword towards Dante, but he had foreseen the attack and evaded it.  
"Augerfrost!" Dante hit the man right in the face, whereupon he fell on the ground. Dante quickly stood up, unsheathed his sword, and pierced it into the soldier's unprotected throat, though with the slightest bit of aversion. He didn't like killing but he had no choice. There is no room for hesitation when your enemy would kill you without any doubt or compassion.

Dante just wanted to thank Cherit for his life- saving help when he noticed three more black armed soldiers running towards him, their swords black flamed and ready to slice him in little pieces.  
"Fireblade!" The blade of Dante's sword was wrapped in light blue magical flames. He brought his sword up and ran towards them, fearless. He pivoted and chopped, his sword like lightning, taking down one enemy after another. He fought himself a way towards the castle, helping as many friends as he could along the way.

The somehow a bit monstrous high black wall, the last hurdle he had to take in order to find Zhalia, came closer with every step he took. But soon Dante got stuck; there were just too many soldiers separating him from his goal. And not only he had to take down the soldiers in front of him, he also had to cover his back. To make the situation even more hopeless Dante was starting to feel tired.  
_I can't do this, there are just too many of them…  
_He lowered his sword for a second and wiped the sweat of his forehead. Suddenly he saw a black figure in the corner of his eye. He turned around but a tad too slow, and he felt a sharp pain as hot metal cut his left arm.  
Dante suppressed the sudden pain and swung his sword in a wide arc. His sword met the one of his enemy. He tried to get the supremacy with all of his strength, but felt he was slowly losing his grip on his sword.  
Suddenly something grey and hairy appeared behind the soldier. Two big claws picked him up and threw him away.  
"Vern?" Dante could barely believe that the tall werewolf in front of him was his friend Vern, but it had to be him. His shimmering amber wolf eyes looked a lot like his human ones.

"Of course it's me, who else would it be?" He growled, his voice even more hoarse and animal than usual. "Now go to that freakin' castle and find the clumsy kid and the icy girl, I'll cover your back."

Dante nodded, and took a quick glance at his injured arm. His coat was soaked with blood but the bleeding had already stopped, the cut wasn't deep. Also the pain was bearable, so he could still fight. But even if the injury had been serious he wouldn't have stopped. He had come too far to give up. He wasn't going to leave Zhalia and Lok.

With renewed strength Dante fought his way towards the moat. He fought in a haze of adrenaline, with Zhalia in his mind, not feeling any pain in his arm any more.

"Dante, watch out!" Cherit yelled, and Dante looked skywards. He saw soldiers appearing behind the battlements on the wall.  
_Uh- uh…  
_"Armorbrand!" He yelled as the soldiers fired a wave of spells and arrows. He saw dozens of men who hadn't seen the attack coming fall on the ground, heavily injured or dead immediately. Even a few of Rassinov's men were hit.  
Dante knew he had to quick now. Before the second wave came, he used Hyperstride and jumped over the with razor sharp rocks filled moat. He landed on the narrow strip of rocky terrain in front of the wall and immediately pressed himself with his back against the wall, so that Rassinov's soldiers on top the wall couldn't see or hit him anymore. Dante tried to calm his racing heart and thought about his next move.  
_What now? Think Dante! _Since the bridge wasn't an option, he slowly moved alongside the wall and looked around, searching for a weak spot or something like that. After about ten meters he saw to great relieve a metal lattice, probably to drain water. It was small but big enough for Dante to fit through. Dante crouched and saw the metal was pretty rusty. _This is my lucky day! _  
"Dragonfist!" Dante broke the lattice with his fists without much effort.

"Wait, Dante, let me go first!" Cherit said. "You don't know who or what is behind this wall."

Dante saw Cherit had a point there. "Go ahead Cherit." Dante said, and Cherit disappeared through the opening.  
After about two minutes Cherit returned.

"Most soldiers are on top the wall. There are several doors that lead to the castle, the closest one's around the corner at the right, but the chances you'll run into one or more soldiers are quite high."

"In other words; it's safe to go?" Dante asked, and he smiled.

Cherit snickered. "Piece of cake."

**Sophie**

_Oh darn it, I can't take this anymore! _Sophie stood up. After what felt like hours of staring at the wall, worrying about Lok, and feeling sorry for herself, Sophie had made a decision. No matter how tired she was, she wasn't going to let her friends fight without her.  
Sophie just couldn't stand being this ignorant, not knowing whether her friends were still alive or not. She realized her presence could make a difference, the difference between life and death.  
_No matter what Dante said, I'm going to help, even if it leads to my own death…._

Sophie thought of the heroes she had read about in books. Those heroes never hesitate to fight for their friends. They do everything they can to defeat evil, no matter the cost.  
_This is my chance to one of those heroes, someone worth writing about… _  
And with that thought in her mind Sophie stormed out of the cave.

**Dante**

Dante went on all fours and crawled through the opening in the thick stone wall. Once he was trough he stood up quickly. He briefly examined his surroundings, holding his sword steady. There were stone stairways at his left and right hand, leading to the top the wall. That was most definitely not the way Dante wanted to go to, so he walked pass the stairways and went into the right alley. At the end of the alley was a small square filled with weapons and stuff like that. Dante hid in the shadow of the stairway and glanced to the square. There were a few soldiers running around, some of them to grab some new gear, others on their way to one of the stairways. One of them walked into Dante's alley.  
_Shit… _Dante realized that the soldier would to see him within a few seconds, and that he had to act now if he wanted to remain unnoticed.

Dante moved out of the shadow and stung his sword into the side of the surprised soldier in one swift, smooth motion. The soldier didn't even got the chance to scream and fell on the ground as Dante pulled his sword out of his body again. He quickly grabbed the dead man's arms and pulled him into the shadows.

"Dante, I think this is our chance." Cherit whispered and Dante glanced to the square. He saw what Cherit meant, it seemed to be deserted, and it probably wouldn't be for long. Dante quickly left his shelter and ran out of the alley. He crossed the square and made a beeline for the wooden door at the left.

He opened the door, and found himself standing face to face with one of Rassinov's soldiers immediately.  
_Uh- oh… _  
The soldier blinked a few times in confusion before he scrunched his face into an angry frown. He pulled his sword and Dante quickly half- closed the door, using it as a shield so the soldier pierced his sword into the door instead of into Dante. Before the soldier could pull his sword out Dante threw the door open again.  
"Dragonfist!" Dante knocked him unconscious. He could have simply killed him but it was against his principles to kill an unarmed man.

"Dante, look!" Cherit said.

"What?" Dante looked to the soldier who was lying on the ground, but didn't see anything special.

Cherit landed on the man's chest and pulled a big key ring with about twenty different iron keys out of his pocket. "I may be wrong but I think these are the keys of the prison cells!"

Dante understood what Cherit was aiming for. "Good thinking Cherit, Rassinov could have locked Zhalia and Lok. Take the keys and go look for them in the dungeon, I'll check out the rest of the castle…" … _And if Rassinov crossed my path I'll take care of him as well…. _Dante mentally added.

**Cherit**

With the heavy keys in his little white claws Cherit flew down the stairway from which he hoped it would lead to the dungeon. The moist, gloomy corridor he entered next had about eighteen heavy wooden doors. _This must be the dungeon… _  
"Lok!" Cherit yelled. "Zhalia? Are you there?"

"Cherit?" Cherit recognized Lok's voice immediately.  
"I can't believe it! You're here!"

Cherit followed the sound of Lok's voice. It came from the third door at the tight.  
"Hold on Lok! I'll open the door!"

After trying at least ten different keys Cherit found the right one. He put the key in the lock and turned it. With all his strength he pushed the door open.

"Cherit!" Within less than a second Cherit felt Lok's (for Cherit) big arms around him.

"Easy my boy, you're crushing me."

"Sorry Cherit, I'm just so glad to see you." Lok said with an apologizing smile. Cherit sat down on his shoulder.

"Kid! Somebody freed you?"  
Cherit startled a bit when he all of the sudden heard a woman's voice.

"Queen Scarlet's stuck in the prison next to this one." Lok whispered to Cherit.  
"Yes I'm free!" He yelled to Scarlet.

"Great, now you can free me as well!"

"Hell no! You've tried to kill us!"

"I know, I know, and I'm… _sorry_!" Cherit didn't find her words sound very genuine. "But I'm begging you! Please free me, then I'll help you defeat Lord Rassinov…."

Cherit saw Lok was hesitating. "No Lok." Cherit whispered. "She's an evil witch we can't trust her…"  
Cherit had some bad memories of Queen Scarlet. There were a lot of things about her Lok didn't know. _If only I could tell Lok what she has done…but I can't… _

"Believe me; I loathe him just as much as you do!" Scarlet said with a bitter tone of voice. "And Lord Rassinov is almighty in the underworld, without my help you won't be able to defeat him…"

"Well... okay then. But you have to swear you'll help us!"

"I swear it."

"No Lok!" Cherit shouted desperately. "This is not a good idea!"

"Everybody deserves a second change." Lok said. "Rassinov imprisoned her so she must be an enemy of him as well, and an enemy of Rassinov is a friend of us."

Cherit sighted. Lok was such a naïve boy sometimes… but there was a nucleus of truth in his words.  
"Maybe you're right…" Cherit said, and he handed Lok the keys. "Free her."

After again a lot of struggling to find the right key, Lok opened the door of Scarlet's prison. At the back wall of the dark moist room was Scarlet, chained to wall with her hands and feet. Her usually perfect pulled up red hair was now messy and her dress scorched at the ends.  
Lok took the smallest key, and opened Scarlet's chains. With a clinging sound they fell on the ground.

Scarlet rubbed her red painful wrists. "Thank you." She said to Lok, with a smile that got Cherit's hackles up. He couldn't shake of the feeling freeing Scarlet had been a bad decision. A really bad decision.

**Dante**

Dante was just wondering where to start his search, when he heard a weird, melodious sound. It was almost like somebody was singing. He tried to focus and listen where the sound came from, but the singing seemed go come from every direction. Hesitatingly he walked through the hallway until he saw a soft warm light shining from the gap under the big double wooden doors at the right. The voice had stopped singing, leaving a sinister silence behind. He didn't exactly know why, but a cold shiver ran down his spine. _Something is happening behind those doors…. _  
Dante put his hands against the right door, and pushed it open inch by inch. He glanced through the opening, and looked into a gigantic hall. Candles were burning everywhere. He pushed the door open a little bit more and saw Rassinov, who was dressed in official looking black and purple attire, an old man in black, and Zhalia. A little shock went trough his body when he saw the woman he had missed so much. She was wearing a beautiful, but dark and obscure dress. When Dante's brain registered what was exactly happening, his mouth fell open.

Rassinov had a small cut in his hand, and let a drop of his blood drip into the crystal glass of wine the old man was holding. Zhalia had a knife in her right hand. She brought the shiny metal blade against her left hand, and made a deep cut. Bright red blood welled up in the razor thin wound. Just like Rassinov she held her hand above the glass, and let her blood mix with the wine.  
The old man handed the glass to Rassinov. He took a sip from the fluid and gave the glass to Zhalia. When her hands closed around the crystal Dante awaked from his state of shock. He shouted out loud the word that was rumbling in his mind like a thunderstorm. It was an uncontrollable instinct; he didn't think nor care about the consequences.  
"No!"

Three heads turned in his direction immediately, but he only saw one; Zhalia's. Her facial expression was one of surprise first, but it soon turned into one of suspicion and rage, as if she was angry he was here. _But it can't be-_

"Dante Vale." Rassinov growled. "How dare you interrupting my wedding?"

_Wedding?_  
Rassinov's words felt like a sharp- edged blade was being pierced through his heart. Dante tried to hide his emotional pain but failed miserably. When Rassinov saw the hurt, bewildered glance in Dante's eyes a vicious smile appeared on his face.

_This can't be real…_  
Dante couldn't believe his senses. He wanted to ask what the hell was going on but he couldn't get the words out. His brain was paralyzed. All he could do was stare at Zhalia, hoping she would explain this, that she would tell him that Rassinov was lying, and desperately searching for a sign of emotion in her eyes. But she didn't say a word, she just stood there, unmoved like a statue, her eyes not warm and hazel, but expressionless and almost as black as the underworld ground.  
"Zhalia…." Dante whispered. "I don't understand it… why?"

"Why?" Rassinov laughed. "Isn't that obvious? I will soon be the most powerful man of Wereld, a legend. You're nothing compared with me… it's not more than logical she prefers me." He answered for her, twisting the blade in Dante's heart a few times.

_She doesn't love me… she loves Rassinov…._ The burning thoughts roaming around in his head gave him a headache, made his knees weak and spread a bad taste in his mouth. The horrible realization paralyzed him. _She doesn't love me… she loves Rassinov…. _He didn't even realize he had fallen on his knees.

Rassinov stepped of the platform, and walked into Dante's direction.

"So… are you going to finish me now?" Dante asked, with a bitter laugh. Nothing mattered to him anymore, neither the battle outside nor his own life. There was no way Rassinov could cause a pain worse than the pain he was feeling right now. Being death seemed even inviting to Dante, he just wanted it to be all over.

"No…" Rassinov said darkly. "She is." And he gestured towards the woman who once was Zhalia.

**-  
Damn I hate writing battle scenes… I hope it was okay… :S**

**We're heading towards the final end, so stay tuned and…. Review!**

**Thanks and see you next chap, hopefully ^^**

**Ps: Everybody got my little references to the tv- show? ;-)  
(Somebody orders Zhalia to kill Dante, just like in ep. 17 and Dante in state of shock just like in the last episode...)**


	22. Chapter 21: The final fight

**Sorry it took me so long to update… major writers block, as usual I hadn't made it very easy for myself last chap xD  
Also I have been busy with some Dutch writing competitions ^^  
(oh yeah, and my exams, kind of important too… xD)**

**To make it up with you again I've written this super ultra- long chapter, hope you like it!**

**H21: The final battle**

_**Rassinov's castle**_

**Dante**

"As you command, my love." Zhalia said.

"Zhalia, what happened to you? Have you lost your mind?" Dante just couldn't believe Zhalia would kill him. Not after all they had been through.  
"How can you do this, after all we've been through?"

"Shut up, I don't even know you." She said angrily. "But I do know you're an enemy of the man that I adore and therefore an enemy of me…"

A shock of realization shot through Dante's body.  
_She really doesn't remember me, Rassinov must have enchanted her or something like that!  
_He almost laughed out loud in relieve. Zhalia didn't love Rassinov, he forced her to love her. His relieve disappeared when he realized that there may be no way back.  
"Rassinov!" Dante shouted. "What have you done to her?"

Rassinov grinned. "I haven't done anything… Zhalia is doing all this out of free will."

"You're a filthy liar!"

"Don't talk my love like that." Zhalia hissed.

Rassinov carressed Zhalia's cheek and Dante felt anger well up inside him like fire.  
"Zhalia, it is Dante Vale who is lying. Don't believe any word that leaves his mouth… "Rassinov whispered in her ear. "He and his Upperworld- friends are here to kill us, to destroy our kingdom, we cannot let that happen, can we?"

"No, we can't let that happen." Zhalia said breathless.

"Then kill him, now."

Zhalia slowly walked towards Dante, her beautiful eyes filled with hate and her hands glowing icy blue.

"Zhalia no... Please remember it, remember me, us. Rassinov has enchanted you!"  
Dante saw his words were useless. His mind worked at top speed, he knew he had to do something, but he didn't want to fight her, he just couldn't bear the thought of hurting her. He loved her more than his own life.  
"Zhalia, I love you…" He said softly, with a pleading glance in his brown eyes.

Zhalia hesitated. For a second Dante thought he saw a flash of gold in her eyes, a glimpse of recognition, of pain and maybe even of love. But it disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared.  
"Rassinov warned me for your tricks… "

She raised her hand and an icy wind started to blow.  
"Farewell…" She whispered, and she fired a beam of razor sharp icicles at him.

There was a flash of fire, and the ice melted right before Dante's eyes. Speechless he looked over shoulder, to find out his rescuer was Queen Scarlet.  
"Scarlet?"

"Get up, you idiot!" She shouted, and she got into fighting position.

"Dante!" A familiar voice yelled.

"Lok! Cherit has found you!" Dante said relieved as he stood up.  
The young boy hugged him elatedly. Cherit flew towards them and sat down on Dante's shoulder.  
"Cherit, what the hell is Scarlet doing here?" Dante asked him.

"Helping us." Cherit said, with noticeably little enthusiasm.

"You're welcome." Scarlet said sarcastically.

Dante glanced towards the red- haired woman next to him. He didn't understand how she ended up being here, leave alone why she would help _them _and not Rassinov. But he couldn't deny she had saved him, so he had no choice but to trust her, at least for now.

"What is this?" Rassinov growled furiously.

"This is payback- time, my Lord." Scarlet said.

"The only one who's going to pay are you." Zhalia said to Scarlet tauntingly.

Scarlet hissed angrily, and Dante grabbed her wrist before she could do anything.  
"Scarlet, if you're going to be at our side, that's fine, but I will not let you hurt Zhalia, she's… not herself."

Scarlet rolled her eyes. "Whatever. But I _will_ hurt Rassinov…"

"I'm totally fine with that." Dante said, and he looked at Rassinov, the man he hated most in the entire world.

"Alright, that's the spirit guys!" Lok said happily. "We have the advantage."

Lok's hopeful enthusiasms made Dante realize that even though it was four against two, they weren't in the advantage at all. Rassinov was almighty in de Underworld and they had to avoid hurting Zhalia, while Zhalia obviously wouldn't hesitate to hurt them.  
But Dante also realized there was no way back now. They had to fight, and they had to win, somehow.  
_I'm goanna find a way to save you Zhalia, no matter what._

_**Outside**_

**Sophie**

Sophie had left her shelter and mingled in the battle, even though she still hadn't fully recovered. Dante had forbidden her to leave the cave, but Sophie was a stubborn girl, she wanted to help her friends, especially Lok. She pictured the poor boy locked in some tower, maybe hurt. She knew he was strong and brave, but what could he do against Rassinov? Nothing. And that thought scared her.  
_I need to get to that castle… if only I had enough energy to teleport! _She thought frustrated.

Thankfully she had enough still enough power to summon magical tree roots. They protected her while she fired energy- beams towards every black armored soldier she saw. And she saw a lot of them. She realized she was never going to reach that damned castle in time.  
_Oh, darn it! Why are there so many of them?_  
A drop of sweat ran down her spine, she started to feel tired.

Her heart dropped when she saw a man on a black horse. His black armor was darker and shinier than that of any other soldier, and the lower half of his face was wrapped in white bandages.  
Hate flamed inside her, she knew who this man was. It was General Wind; the leader of the black riders, the bastards that had mutilated and killed countless unicorns and other animals, just for fun.  
Seeing him gave her a feeling she had never experienced before: hunger for revenge. It gave her renewed strength.

"Sophie!"  
Sophie turned around and saw her friend Delphine.  
"Sophie, what the hell are you doing here? Weren't you supposed to stay inside the cave?"

"No I'm not." Sophie said, and she made her way to General Wind, who had defeated dozens of men all by himself. There was a big open area around him because nobody dared to come any near him.  
Sophie ignored Delphines protesting cries; nobody was going to stop her from taking revenge.  
Not wanting to kill Wind's innocent horse, she let the tree roots wrap around its leg. The horse stumbled, and the surprised General fell off it. He landed on his feet and furiously looked around, searching for his attacker. When he saw Sophie he frowned and looked at her sneeringly.  
Sophie didn't need to see his mouth to know he was smiling, and a new wave of hate and anger came over her. How dared he underestimate her? She was Sophia Casterwell, the cervix of nature and she was going kick his evil ass!

General Wind threw a thunderbolt at Sophie. She evaded the attack and fired razor- sharp leaves at him, but they only made a few scratches on his metal armor.  
Wind threw her a glance that said: Is that all you got?  
_Don't let him drive you crazy Sophie!  
_She fired another beam of leaves towards him, but that was just a distraction. At the same time she let new thorny tree roots come up out of the earth. They wrapped around Wind. He struggled to free himself, but instead of that the roots wrapped around him even more tightly.

Suddenly there was a flash of black, followed by a burning smell. Wind had turned the roots into smoldering piles of ash. A cry escaped Sophie's throat when she was struck by another thunderbolt. She fell on the ground, gasping for breath and with a fierce pain burning in her chest.  
A shadow fell over her. She titled her head and saw Wind was standing in front of her. He raised his hand, ready to finish her.

"Hey, bandage- freak!"  
Annoyed Wind looked over his shoulder to see who was insulting him. It was Delphine.  
"Yes, I'm talking to you! Fight somebody your own size!" Delphine shouted, but she quickly shut her mouth when Wind fired a thunderbolt at her. It missed her by an inch.

Delphine raised her sword bravely, and Wind drew his sword as well.

Though Sophie's head hurt and pounded like hell, she realized Wind wanted to defeat Delphine without magic. He probably found that funny in some sick way.  
_I must help her!  
_She rolled from her back on her stomach. She saw Delphine and Wind fighting with all their strength.  
Then her eye fell on some kind of dagger that was sticking out of the blood- soaked ground. The moon reflected in its metal blade. Sophie crawled towards it, pulled it out of the ground, and struggled to her feet.

Delphine hit Wind's arm and the dark General lost his sword, but he struck Delphine with a lightning bolt before she could finish him. Delphine cried and was blown back by the unexpected attack.

_This is my chance!  
_Sophie staggered towards Wind, and plunged the dagger into his unprotected neck.

Wind screamed, and blood spurted from the wound. He hit her with his fist and she fell on the ground, before he fell down himself.  
"Shauna… avenge me…"

Sophie heard him whisper, as she struggled to her feet again. Her hands and dress were smeared with blood, but she couldn't care less.  
_Delphine… is she alright? _  
Sophie stumbled towards the motionless body of her friend, ignoring the pain in her limbs, and not paying close attention to her surroundings. She did not see a woman appeared next to her out of nowhere, until she said: "You're going to pay for the dead of my brother, filthy little cervix…"

Sophie turned her head, and saw a green- haired woman with a skin that was just as pale as Wind's, and brown eyes that were almost black with fury. She was wearing a claret red dress and was holding a small sword with a waved blade.  
_No!_  
Sophie gasped for breath as the cold metal pierced through her stomach. The pain was so intense she saw black dots dancing on the edge of her vision. The smirking face of the woman was only inches away from Sophie's, she could feel her warm breath in her face.  
In her last moments of consciousness Sophie managed to plunge her dagger into the woman's heart.  
The shocked look in the woman's eyes was the last thing she saw before everything turned black.

_**Inside the castle**_

**Lok**

"This will to be easy…" Rassinov said. With one movement of his hand, all the candles extinguished. Suddenly it was all dark and dusky inside the big hall.

Scarlets flaming hands lightened up the room again.  
"You can burn in hell Rassinov." She hissed, and threw a fireball at him.

Zhalia protected Rassinov with a shield of ice. The shield mirrored Scarlet's attack back to her, but she caught it easily, and started throwing more fireballs at Zhalia.

"Hyperstride!"  
Dante ran and jumped to attack Rassinov from the other side, while Scarlet kept Zhalia busy.  
"Raypulse!"

Rassinov absorbed the attack with his hand simply.

Dante quickly unsheathed his sword, brought it up, and swung it at Rassinov.  
Rassinov was too late to avoid the attack completely, and the sword cut his shoulder. He screamed, out of surprise and pain, but managed to hit Dante with a black energy- beam unexpectedly.  
Dante hadn't seen the attack coming and lost grip on his sword. It flew through the air and landed at the other side of the hall, far out of Dante's reach.  
Both men jumped into battle position again, with a grim determination in their eyes.

_Okay, maybe we're not in the advantage after all… _Lok thought. He realized they needed a good plan.  
_If only we could bring back Zhalia at our side!_

"Augerfrost!"  
Lok tried to help Dante, but Zhalia, who had frozen Scarlet's body to the wall, intercepted his attack and mirrored it back to him. Lok ducked right in time not to be hit by his own spell.  
_Wouldn't be the first time that happened…. _Lok thougt, and he almost snickered.  
His eye fell on the diamond necklace Zhalia was wearing. It emanated a softly pulsing black light, it almost seemed alive.

"Cherit, do you see that necklace?"

"Yes, I noticed it before." Cherit anwered. "It's a bit weird isn't it? Why would Rassinov give Zhalia such a precious jewel?"

"Maybe it's some special ceremonial wedding- thing?" Lok put forward, though he didn't really believe it himself. For some reason he had the feeling there was much more going on with that necklace.

In the meantime Scarlet had freed herself from her frozen position, and locked Zhalia in a ring of fire. Zhalia tried to extinguish the fire, while Scarlet did everything she could to keep the fire burning. Zhalia almost growled in frustration. Her eyes glowed up black, just like the necklace. She called up a big whirlwind of snow that extinguished the fire, and blew Scarlet away. With a high cry of pain Scarlet crushed into the wall.

It was then that Lok realized there was indeed something seriously wrong with that necklace.  
"Cherit, I think that necklace may be the source of Zhalia's evilness. We've got to find a way to get it off her."

Cherit nodded. "It's closest thing to a plan we have... Dante!"

Alarmed by Cherit's cry Lok looked at Dante. He was half- lying on the ground, wrapped in strings of black that obviously put him in a lot of pain. Rassinov was grinning viciously.

"Cherit, I'll help Dante, can you take care of that necklace?" Lok asked, and Cherit nodded.

Lok ran towards Rassinov.  
"Touchram!"  
His spell missed but he didn't fail to catch Rassinov's attention. The black strings around Dante disappeared as Rassinov turned himself to Lok furiously, and fired some weird purple matter at him.

Lok wanted to use Armorbrand but was already too late. The fawning substance started to cover his feet and legs, and then also his chest, arms, everything. Lok tried to remove the substance but it was very sticky. Lok slowly started to panic, he didn't know what this stuff could do, but whatever it was, it just couldn't be any good.

**Cherit**

"Come here you piece of vermin!" Zhalia yelled frustrated, as she tried to hit Cherit with one of her icy powers.

_How am I ever going to get that necklace, she won't let me come any near her!  
_"Zhalia, I only want to help you… aaah!" Cherit escaped narrowly from a big sharp piece of ice.  
_Somebody needs to distract her… _  
Cherit looked around. Lok was fighting with some weird purple syrupy stuff, and Dante and Scarlet were fighting Rassinov. Cherit saw it wasn't going very well; Scarlet was bruised and hurt by her fight with Zhalia and Dante looked all tired out.  
Thankfully Rassinov also wasn't in perfect condition. Though he had sealed the wound in his shoulder, it still hurt and hindered in combat.

Cherit had an inner struggle. Should he help Lok or Zhalia?  
He chose the last option. Lok had to hold on until they got Zhalia back at their side. If he succeeded they maybe would be able to defeat Rassinov.  
_I sure hope we were right about that necklace… _  
Cherit didn't dare to think about what would happen if the necklace turned out to be just an ordinary piece of jewelry.  
"Dante! I need some distraction!"

Dante didn't look at Cherit but he nodded, and Cherit understood he had heard him.

"Doublespell! Touchram!" Dante yelled, forcing Rassinov to move back.  
"Zhalia! I know you're still there, deep inside, I've seen it!" Dante yelled at Zhalia. "Please come back, remember it, and take off that necklace, I know you can do it."

"Ugh, stop talking!" Zhalia shouted, and she pressed her hands against her temples, like she had a severe headache.

"Please Zhalia, we need you. I need you." Dante said.

"I… no- shut up!"

There was a blue flash and Dante was struck by an icy beam of energy.

Zhalia lowered her hand. She looked confused, almost as if was struggling with herself.

_This is my chance!  
_Cherit sat down on her shoulder, and removed the necklace. He threw it far away.

**Zhalia  
**  
Zhalia screamed and fell on her knees, the loss of the necklace caused her pain, but it faded away slowly. Her clouded mind cleared, and it felt like a big burden had fell off her shoulders. She was free, and remembered everything that had happened.  
She had dined with Lord Rassinov, had been locked in a tower and… somehow ended up almost marrying him!  
_Oh god, I almost married Rassinov!  
_Zhalia felt nauseous, as she started to remember every detail of everything that had happened.  
She had attacked her friends, protected Rassinov, and almost killed Dante!  
_Dante I'm so sorry…  
_"What have I done…?" She whispered, horrified.

"Zhalia?"

She realized Cherit was sitting on her shoulder.

"Zhalia are you alright? Are you…?"

She smiled, and stroked his soft white fur.  
"Yes Cherit, I'm back, thanks to you."  
She looked around. Lok was fighting with a weird, sticky purple matter that was gulping him down.  
Zhalia quickly ran towards him, and froze the syrupy stuff. Knowing that Lok could easily free himself now, she ran towards the others.

Scarlet was lying on the ground, unconscious and maybe even dead.  
Dante used Hyperstride in an attempt to get near her, but was hit by a black energy- beam. He managed to keep standing. His shirt was torn and Zhalia saw a big wound on his chest.

"It's over Mr. Vale, you can't defeat me all by yourself…" Rassinov said, with self- satisfied smile on his face.

"He isn't all by himself!" Zhalia yelled, and she struck Rassinov with all the power she had.

Rassinov crushed into the altar in front of the windows. Bruised and covered with scratches he stood up. His eyes filled with fury and disbelieve when he saw that the cursed necklace that had been keeping Zhalia under him control, was gone.  
"This isn't over yet…" He growled. "I can defeat both of you…"

"I don't think so." Dante said. "And I would look down if I were you."

Rassinov looked down, and saw that the ritual knife which had been lying on the altar was pierced through his stomach. Tick red blood was streaming out of the wound.  
A pained expression appeared on Rassinov's face. His pale skin turned even paler as more and more blood streamed out of his body. He couldn't seal the wound, it was too big and he was too weak.  
"If I die, you die with me, my love…" He whispered, and his hands glowed up black.

When the meaning of his words finally got through to Zhalia, it was already too late. A strong dark force wrapped around her, and pulled her towards Rassinov. He grabbed her arm, and jumped through the big stained glass windows.

**Dante**

"Zhalia!" Powerless Dante watched how Rassinov dragged Zhalia along in his fall. The sound of glass breaking merged with her scream, whereupon a deafening silence fell.  
"Zhalia!" Dante ran towards the window. Hundred meters below he saw Rassinov's body lying in an unnatural position in a pool of blood on the rocky ground. He was dead.  
Dante's eyes searched for Zhalia, but he didn't see her anywhere.

"And this is the point where I betray you…" Scarlet said.

Dante turned around, and saw Scarlet standing in front of him, her hands flaming with fire and her green eyes glowing predatory.

"But you were…"

"Not dead." She said, finishing his sentence. "I faked, it was all a part of my plan. My biggest enemies, Lord Rassinov and Queen Zhalia, are dead, and once I've finished you as well, I will be unstoppable and-"  
She gasped for breath. A sword was pierced through her chest. Scarlet fell on her knees and screamed, as she ascended in flames.

"Ha! You forgot about me, evil witch!" Lok yelled triumphantly. He was holding Dante's sword.

"Danteeee!"

Dante's hearth stood still when he heard a Zhalia's voice screaming his name. Was it just a hallucination or was she still alive?  
"Zhalia!"  
He went on all fours and looked over the edge. He saw Zhalia had managed to grab a ridge, and was now hanging about hundred meters above the ground. The relieve Dante felt was so intense it almost hurt.  
"Dante! I can't hold it much longer!" She yelled, and Dante knew that he had to act quickly, before she would lose her grip and fall after all.  
"Zhalia, hold on!"  
He lay down and stretched out his hand. He couldn't get close enough to her.

"I've got you Dante." Lok said, and he grabbed Dante's coat from behind. Now Dante could stretch out his hand far enough.

"Zhalia, grab my hand!" He yelled.

Zhalia let go of the ridge with her one hand and grabbed Dante's. As he tried to pull her up she almost slipped away, but he grabbed her wrist with his other hand, and managed to pull her up, with the help of Lok.

Within seconds he felt her soft arms around him. He embraced her as tightly as he could, while whispering her name in disbelieve. She had survived, they all had survived. The nightmare was finally over.  
He looked in her eyes, they were no longer black en filled with evil, but dazzling hazel brown with golden sparkles. He stroked her face, as if he wanted to make sure whether she was real or not.  
"I don't know what to say Dante…" She whispered, and a tear rolled down her cheek.

"You don't have to say anything…" he said, and he kissed her.

"Ummm sorry to interrupt you guys, but there's somebody I really want you to meet!" Lok said

_It better important… _Dante thought, asand he broke the kiss.  
He sighted, and helped Zhalia up. "What are you talking about Lok who-"  
Dante's mouth fell open when he saw a tall blond man standing next to Lok. He had put his arm around the boy.

"This is Eathon Lambert, previously known as Cherit!"

"But…" Dante couldn't believe his eyes. The man indeed looked a lot like Lok; the same bright eyes, the same smile. "But how is this possible?"

"Scarlet!" Zhalia said.

Eathon smiled. "Indeed, when Lok killed Scarlet, the evil curse she had pronounced on me was broken."

"I don't understand it… I mean, how did this happen?" Dante asked.

"Scarlet had turned me into a bat- monkey when I accidentally crossed her kingdom. It was one of her hobbies you know; to turn people into animals and then keep them as pets. But I managed to escape. I spent my animal years flying around and occasionally spy on Lok, Sandra and Cathy, though it hurt me I couldn't tell them who I was. That's a part of the curse, from the inside I was still myself and I could talk, but it was impossible for me to tell anybody who I truly was and what had happened to me." He shook his head, as if he tried to shake off those bad memories. "But thanks to Lok, my brave son, I am free from the curse." He embraced him.

"I'm so happy I finally found you dad…" Lok said, his voice strangled by tears. "I knew you weren't dead, I knew it, I just knew it… I've missed you so much…"

"I know son, and I'm sorry. But I promise I will stay with you, and protect you, for as long as I live…"

Dante put his arm around Zhalia, as they watched the united father and son. It was one of the most beautiful moments he had ever seen.

"We have to go to Sophie, she must know you are, no _were_ Cherit!" Lok said enthusiastically.

Lok's words brought Dante's mind back to the real world. He remembered there had been a big battle taking place outside the castle. Was the battle already over? Had Rassinov's soldiers noticed their great leader was no longer among them?

Zhalia was thinking exactly the same thing as Dante.  
"We've got to go, now!" She said.

Lok and Eathon nodded, and the four of them quickly walked back towards the entrance of the castle.

The wooden door through which Dante had entered was still opened. They walked outside. Dante immediately noticed the lack of sound. There was no screaming, nor the sound of metal against metal and exploding spells. There was complete silence.  
They crossed the square, and ran to the big main gates of the castle. They saw men standing there, wounded and tired out but with a satisfied smile on their faces, and it weren't soldiers of Rassinov. It were their allies. Dante smiled when he recognized one of them.

**Lok**

Lok had never seen the men before, but it seemed Dante did.

"Craigh!" Dante yelled.

"Dante!" The man named Craigh smiled. "Where have you been? You missed our great victory!"

"And you've missed óur great victory."

"I know, Rassinov's dead. I have to tell you, that's kind of what saved our ass. After those two General's died the soldiers didn't know what to do. They were waiting for orders from Lord Rassinov but those orders never came. We took advantage of that moment to settle the battle."

It was then that Lok realized there had been a battle outside the castle as well. A disturbing thought crossed his mind. Had Sophie fought too? Was she okay? He had to know, now.

"W- where's Sophie?" Lok asked.

Craigh's face darkened and Lok's breath caught in his throat.

"A lot of our allies have died, including Aadan and Foster. The girl Sophie… I know she was supposed to stay inside the cave, but she somehow ended up in the center of the battle."

A million questions crossed Lok's mind, but he didn't dare to ask any of them, afraid of the answers he would get.

"From what's I've heard she fought bravely, together with the rebel- leader." Craigh continued. "I don't know exactly how it went but together they killed both General Wind and General Shauna. Unfortunately the rebel- leader didn't survive, and Sophie got injured. Badly. They brought her back to the cave for medical care but I don't know…."

Everybody gasped for breath, upset and fearing the worst.

"No… Sophie…" Lok said weakly.  
How could this have happened? Why hadn't he been there to protect her? He wanted to scream and curse and kick against something or someone, but he knew that wouldn't help Sophie. He had to go see her.  
_I'm coming Sophie, hold on!_  
Lok ran away, his vision shrouded in tears.

-  
**Again a lot of fighting in this chapter, but I just didn't find it believable if everything went über smoothly… :-P**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chap. Leaving a little review would be most kind ;-)**

**ps: Next chap will probably be the last one! And no fighting there, but lots of romance, I promise! ^^  
**


	23. Chapter 22: Ever after

**Umm late update, I know. Sorry.  
But the good news (or bad news) is that this will be the last chapter! And as usual the last chapter is filled with lots of romance… ;-)**

**I hope you like it, and I want to thank everybody who has reviewed! You guys are awesome! ^^**

**H22: Ever after**

_**Inside the cave**_

__**Lok**__

__Sophie's skin was paler as snow, her normally bright and analyzing green eyes closed. White blood- stained bandages were wrapped around her stomach.

"Sophie… can you hear me?" Lok asked softly. He was holding her hand as he struggled with his tears. He didn't want to cry, he wanted to be strong for Sophie.

"I've done everything I could Lok," Vern said, "now it's up to her."

Lok nodded. He was Vern very thankful for his help. Even though Vern was very shaken up by Delphine's death, he had done everything in his power to safe Sophie. He had taken her to the cave and stopped the bleeding. Then he had called in one of the sorcerers of the White Mountain, who had used a few healing spells. But since Sophie already had lost a lot of blood, it was still possible she wouldn't survive.

_Come on Sophie! _Lok thought. _Wake up, I don't know what I should do without you…_

**Zhalia**

Zhalia grabbed Dante's hand and held it tight. Even though she and Sophie had their quarrels – especially in the beginning – the girl was like a sister to her. Zhalia had already lost her parents, and couldn't bear the thought of losing anyone she cared about again.

Silently she looked at the motionless girl.  
_Come on Sophie, you can do it!_  
Suddenly Sophie's eyelids started to tremble.

"S- Sophie?" Lok asked.

Sophie moaned and slowly opened her eyes.  
"Lok?" she asked with an almost inaudible voice. "What happened? W- where am I?"

"It's okay Sooph," Lok said, and he softly stroked the hair out of her face. "You're safe now… youll be alright."

Dante smiled and looked at Zhalia. "Let's give them some privacy," he whispered.  
Zhalia nodded. She understood those two kids had a lot to talk about, and quietly walked out of the cave.

**Dante & Zhalia**

Outside the sun was shining high above. For the first time the Underworld actually looked beautiful to Dante. Zhalia had wrapped her arms around herself and stared at the horizon, sunken in thoughts.  
In the soft reddish sunlight her skin almost seemed to glow. Dante walked towards her and took her in his arms, her back against his chest and his arms around her waist.  
"A penny for your thoughts…" he said.

Zhalia smiled. "I was just thinking about how many things have changed. How I have changed. It feels like nothing's ever going to be the same again."

"And is that a bad thing?"

She thought about that question for a few seconds. "No."

Dante turned her so that he could look her in the eyes.  
It still felt unreal to him, that she was here save in his arms, alive and freed from Rassinov's curse. He got so close to losing her, and now he wanted to be with her forever.  
An impulsive thought crossed his mind, but he pushed it away immediately.  
_No I can't possibly... she's a Queen and I'm just a seeker… just a seeker who loves her…  
_All his life, all the girls he'd ever had, it meant nothing anymore, it had all been just a search, a search for her. When he had seen Zhalia for the first time, he had known that she was his destiny.  
_  
_He realized that there had never been a more perfect moment, it was now or never. Dante made up his mind.  
"Zhalia…" He got down on one knee and grabbed her hand.

"Dante? What the hell are you doing?"

"Just telling you the truth," he said. "Zhalia… I don't belong to the nobility and I'm also not extremely rich or extremely funny. God, I don't even have a ring… but I do have a hearth, and I want to give it to you."

Zhalia looked at him with a shocked expression. "Dante, are you doing what I think you're doing?" _  
_  
Dante smiled. "Queen Zhalia, will you marry me?"

"Oh Dante I…"  
The past few years many, many men had proposed to her. Tall men and small men, old men and young men, rich men and poor men, but she had rejected them all, she knew they didn't really care about her.  
No man had ever given her that special warm, tingling feeling inside. Until Dante came along. He had made her feel young and insecure – especially that night at the rebel camp – but above all he had made her feel alive again.  
She had known that he cared about her, but a little voice in the back of her mind had always wondered exactly how much. And now Dante had given her the answer; he cared about her just as much as she cared about him. And she cared about him more than anything else in the world.  
An indescribable feeling of happiness spread through her body.  
"…I thought you'd never ask."

Everything was bathing in sunlight, there was an electricity in the air that seemed to last forever.  
"Is that a yes?" Dante asked eventually.

"No it's a no…" Zhalia said, but in an unmistakably sarcastic tone of voice. "Of course it's a yes!"

He got on his feed and kissed her. In that one kiss he wanted to express all his love, and Zhalia answered the kiss with the same passion and intensity.  
Above them the sun reached its highest point.

_**A few weeks later at Zhalia's ice palace**_

__**Zhalia**__

__Lok and Eathon had returned to the bakery, there was a lot to explain to Sandra and Cathy.  
Sophie had gone to Snowland with Dante and Zhalia, where she had received the best medical care. She was now almost fully healed, and had found a new friend in Zhalia's royal servant Peter. Both of them were extremely enthusiastic about the soon to come wedding – a bit too enthusiastic if you'd ask Zhalia.

Zhalia, Dante, Peter and Sophie were having a meeting about the wedding, but Peter and Sophie did most of the talking.

"It has to be an outdoor ceremony at the fall of night, when the moon starts rising, that's a tradition in Snowland," Peter said. "It will be big, really really big!"

"Yes!" Sophie said impassionedly. "And afterwards there has to be a party for the most important guests, with champagne, elegant food, jazzy music and lots of ice sculptures, fountains and magical lights."

"Great, great, and there must be flowers! I was thinking of lilies and roses."

"Peter you're a genius! And the colors must not only be the traditional white and blue, also a hint of some other color… pink?"

"The queen hates pink," he said, as if Zhalia wasn't there, "what about lilac?"

"Lilac looks like purple and purple will remind everybody of Rassinov… yellow?"

"Yes a soft, creamy tint of yellow… an unusual, happy yet romantic color, perfect!"

"And what about the dress?"

"Oh yes the dress, it must be big and glamorous."

"With the traditional jewelry-"

"Guys stop!" Zhalia said. "I want a simple wedding, not too big and not too much glamour and show."

"But my Queen, the citizens are delighted about the marriage, it must be big, with a lot of important guests, that's your duty as a queen." Peter said.

Much against her wish Zhalia realized he was right. As a Queen she had to meet certain expectations.  
She sighted. "Fine, but the after party must be a bit more modest. And no exorbitant dresses!"

"Alright," Sophie said with a smile. "I should have known that's not your style. What about a simple, elegant and feminine dress? Outstanding but in an understated way."

"That sounds good," Zhalia said.  
_At least better than a huge dress with sparkles and ribbons…_

"And what about the rest?" Peter asked. "Because there are hundreds of things that have to be planned and-"

"We have faith you guys will make it right," Dante said, and Zhalia threw him a 'oh do we?'- look.

"Yes!" Sophie cheered. "Oh it's going to be amazing, we promise, right Peter?"

Peter nodded. "Come Sophie, we have to start planning, we've got just four weeks until the big day!"

Zhalia already started to regret their decision to leave everything up to Peter and Sophie.  
"Don't overdo this guys!" she yelled as the two walked away, busy chatting about decorations and fitting music. "Not too theatrical please!"  
_Oh god this is going to be a complete disaster… _

_**At the evening of the wedding  
**_  
Zhalia hadn't seen Dante in a week. It was a tradition in Snowland the groom didn't see the bride for seven days before the ceremony. She had never thought about it before, but it really was a stupid tradition. She missed Dante ridiculously much, and therefore time passed by utterly slow.

Zhalia gasped for breath as Eva, one of her maids, constricted the bodice of her dress.  
For the thousandth time that day Zhalia wished she and Dante could have married undercover or something like that. Quick and pure, without painful bodices and difficult hustling with her hair.

"It's done my Queen," Eva said.

Zhalia turned around and looked in the mirror. She had to admit the dress Sophie had picked was really gorgeous. It looked just like she'd hoped; simple and elegant, though still Queen- worthy.  
_Maybe this isn't going to be so bad after all._

Suddenly time passed way too quick. Before Zhalia knew it she was sitting in a carriage, on way to the snowed fields behind the palace, where the ceremony would take place.  
The ride went very slow because there were citizens everywhere, cheering and desperate to catch a glimpse of their Queen. Zhalia smiled and waved confidently, though in reality she was so nervous it felt like somebody had shoved a sock down her throat.

Luckily Mr. Coquees was there to support her. He knew her well and immediately noticed her nerves.  
"Calm down dear," he said. "Just relax and enjoy the ride, everything's going to be alright."

"I'm not so sure about that…" Zhalia said. "God I've never been so nervous in all of my life. What if I stumble? What if I forget what to say? What if a meteor crashes down on Wereld?"

Mr. Coquees laughed. "I highly doubt that will happen. It's going to be a perfect wedding, I just know it, I've been waiting for this moment my entire life."

"Exagerator," Zhalia said, and she rolled her eyes.

"No really," her old friend said with a serious face. "I thought you'd never meet the right guy, and now you've found him after all, there is no way I'm going to let anything ruin it, I promise.

Zhalia smiled. "Thanks, I think I'm starting to feel a tiny bit better."

After an hour they had finally reached the place of the ceremony, the big snowed field behind the palace, in front of a small lake.  
Zhalia stepped out of the carriage, and Mr. Coquees escorted her up to the altar, which was made of ice and decorated with little ice blue daisies.  
There were countless little blue and golden lights burning in the trees and floating in the air between the stars. It all looked great, and Zhalia reminded herself she had to thank Sophie and Peter for their excellent work after the ceremony.  
Zhalia also noticed there was soft violin- like music playing on the background. She didn't know where it came from but it was just perfect.

There were a lot of guests, and Zhalia saw a lot of acquaintances. King Earl and other royals, Craigh, Vern… Then she also saw her friends; Sophie and Undecim, sitting next to Lok and his family. Lok waved enthusiastically. They looked happy.

When she finally saw Dante, standing on the altar, she forgot about the others. He looked stunning in his traditional greyish blue and white attire that accentuated his athletic posture and russet hair.  
Their gazes met and the last nerves she felt faded away.

**Dante**

Just like the other present persons Dante gasped for breath when the bride appeared. She walked down the aisle with slow, majestic steps. Dante couldn't think of anything to compare her beauty with, especially not since he hadn't seen her for seven long and lonely days.  
She was wearing a white gown with a sweetheart neckline and lace up at the back. The bodice was decorated with a few subtle crystal flowers and the long silk skirt was waterfall draped.  
Her hair was set in an elegantly wrapped updo, finished with a ceremonial crystal tiara and a sweep lace veil.  
In her arms she was holding a bridal bouquet of white lilies and roses, little ice blue daisies and also a few light yellow roses.

With the help of Mr. Coquees she climbed the altar.  
She gave Dante a small beaming smile.  
**  
**The priest also climbed the altar, and a silence fell.  
"Dearly beloved," he said. "We're gathered together to join together our cherished Queen Zhalia Moon from snowland and the brave Dante Vale, in the sight of the god of the moon, giver of all spiritual grace."  
He turned himself towards Dante. "Dante, will you love, comfort and honour this woman, as long as you shall live?"

"I will," Dante said, and he put a white golden ring with a dazzling blue diamond on the third finger of Zhalia's left hand.

"Now Zhalia," the priest continued. "Will you love, comfort and honour this man, as long as you both shall live?"

"Yes I will," Zhalia said, and she put a white and yellow golden ring on the third finger of Dante's left hand.

The priest started singing a ceremonial song in the ancient language of the mountains, about love that will last forever and the spiritual connection of every living creature with the moon.

When he was finished he took both Dante and Zhalia's left hand.  
"Then I hereby pronounce you husband and wife, for now and forever," he said. "You may now kiss the bride."

Dante leaned in and kissed his bride gently on the lips. The public started clapping and cheering.  
"I love you," he whispered in her ear.

"And I love you," was her simple answer.

Dante looked in her perfect almond- shaped brown eyes. "I can't for our wedding night," he said, and he smirked.

Zhalia chuckled and put her arms around his neck. She pressed her lips against his again and kissed him passionately, much to the delight of the public.

Sophie, Cathy and Peter were sobbing and Lok whistled on his fingers. In the back of his mind he was already secretly daydreaming about marrying Sophie.

Zhalia threw the bridal bouquet to the public. Behind them the firework had started. Exploding flowers of silver, golden and blue decorated the sky.  
It was going to be long and enervating night full of celebration, a night no one would ever forget, especially not two persons…  
-

**Epilogue:**

**Lok and his family moved to Snowland, where they opened a new bakery.  
Sophie decided move to Snowland permanently as well – together with Undecim, who couldn't miss her – to stay close to Lok, Zhalia and Dante.  
Sophie also decided to write a book about their adventures.**

**When Lok and Sophie were old enough they got married. A few months later their first child was born; a boy named Monty, and soon after him they got twin girls called Delphy and Sasha.**

**Zhalia and Dante got kids as well; a girl named Zelena and a boy named Dayan.**

**And they lived happily ever after…**


End file.
